West Indies' Shivnarine Chanderpaul hits the ball against Australia during the Tri-Series Cricket Tournament in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. - reuters

kuala lumpur, (ap)

Australia snatched a dramatic 78-run victory over the West Indies yesterday in the first match of the DLF Cup tri-series, dismissing the last nine Caribbean wickets for 29 runs with Shane Watson claiming four.

Chasing Australia's 279 for 9 in 50 overs under floodlights at the Kinrara Oval, West Indies were all out for 201 in 34.3 overs despite a solid 136-run opening partnership by Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who made 92, and Chris Gayle, who hit 58.

At one stage the West Indies were a comfortable 172 for one, coasting toward almost certain victory. But they lost the remaining nine wickets for 29 runs with only Ramnaresh Sarwan (22) reaching the double figures besides the openers. Dwayne Bravo made eight and no other West Indies batsman scored more than two.

On a roll

Man of the match Watson took four wickets for 43 runs including the prize scalps of Gayle and Sarwan.

"Once we were on the roll (it was) pretty hard to stop. We thought we had a win probably when they were six wickets down," Watson said.

Australian captain Ricky Ponting said the team "felt desperate when the partnership between Gayle and Shiv was on." But the West Indies collapse and the Australian victory "is one of the most dramatic turnarounds I have seen."

For world champions Australia, playing international cricket for the first time in more than three months, the victory was all the more sweet as it experimented with the line-up by including several inexperienced players.

The Australian innings was based around Michael Clarke's 81 and a fluent 54 by Ponting, who won the toss and decided to bat first.

Playing his 83rd one-day international, Clarke also shared a 69-run, fourth-wicket partnership with Mark Cosgrove (34) and a 53-run partnership for the sixth wicket with Brad Haddin (23).