Sachin slams ton as India end on 341

West Indies captain Brian Lara won the toss and elected to bowl in the fourth and final One-Dayer at the IPCL Stadium at Vadodara against India on Wednesday.

With confidence teeming on the faces of Team India's openers, Sourav Ganguly, who returned to the side replacing Gautam Gambhir, and Robin Uthappa, started on a promising note, picking boundaries from each of the initial overs of Daren Powell and Dwayne Smith.

Uthappa began from where he left off in Chennai, spanking a couple of sixes from Daren Powell in the seventh over. But the batsman had to pay next ball with his wicket to the bowler, edging the ball to the slips and departing for 28.

The dismissal brought India skipper Rahul Dravid in the middle with the score at 47 for one.

Sourav Ganguly though, continued his good run of form, dispatching balls square of the wicket with much flourish, and stepping out to upset the rhythm of the bowlers all the more.

The Indians had raced to 93/1 after 15 overs. Ganguly, the major contributor to the run feast, reached his 62nd ODI 50 from 58 balls shortly after, while Dravid was going steady at 17.

The change in the bowling attack brought some respite to the West Indies, with spinners Marlon Samuels and Chris Gayle pegging the Indians back after a rollicking start.

Ganguly’s entertaining knock of 68 ended when Gayle put an end to his efforts, the batsman missing the line of the ball and getting out stumped by ‘keeper Denesh Ramdin; India 148/2.

With Tendulkar joining Dravid at the crease, the Indians carried the attack forward post Ganguly’s dismissal. Though the number of boundaries diminished, runs continued to flow with frequent singles, and Sachin Tendulkar showing a spring in his step.

Dravid brought up his 50, collecting his runs from all round the wicket, while Tendulkar banked on his powerful drives to keep the runs flowing. The master blaster, back in the number four position on Wednesday, brought up his 76th 50 from just 46 balls, five boundaries assisting him on the way.

The overs at the death saw boundaries aplenty, with Tendulkar at his improvising best, helping the fast bowlers around the park to good effect, taking the run rate over the six an over mark.

The Indian skipper was out trying to step up the tempo, caught in the deep after a superb 77, coming with the help of seven fours.

Tendulkar, criticised of late for his uncharacteristic showing despite of getting decent runs, returned nearly to his best, bettering a run-a-ball and looked poised for triple figures.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who joined Tendulkar as Dravid departed, wielded the willow in a unique manner, digging out near-yorkers and smashing sixes.

The dying stages saw sixes raining at the IPCL Stadium, Dhoni and Tendulkar taking the Indian score past the 300-run mark. The wicketkeeper-batsman’s share of the sixes landed outside the park, while Lara dropped Tendulkar in the penultimate over.

India made three changes to the team that played in Chennai, bringing in Sourav Ganguly, M S Dhoni and Irfan Pathan at the expense of Gautam Gambhir, Dinesh Karthik and Ramesh Powar.

West Indies omitted Dwayne Bravo from their 12, the all-rounder failing to recover fully from injury. Jerome Taylor was rested for the game while Runako Morton was kept as 12th man. Shivnarine Chandepaul, Dwayne Smith and Ian Bradshaw returned to the side.