Gayle lauds 'team effort'

West Indies captain Chris Gayle has described the series-winning display in the fourth ODI in Kingstown as a "team effort", but also called for improvement after the hosts struggled in their chase of 142. Dwayne Bravo, the Man of the Match, grabbed four wickets, and Narsingh Deonarine guided his team, with a bit of luck, to the finish to seal West Indies' first ODI series win since August 2008.

"I am happy with the result because we have won the series, and have not won a series for a long time," Gayle said. "We will take this victory and this series win with both hands because it has been a team effort - everyone has played some part."

West Indies have taken an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-match series to begin a fresh phase under new coach Ottis Gibson on a positive note. They won three consecutive games after sustaining dispiriting defeats in the only Twenty20 international and the first ODI.

While their bowlers, led by Bravo and Rampaul, put in an impressive performance, West Indies had threatened to undermine that effort with the bat. Graeme Cremer, the legspinner, grabbed three wickets, after Gayle had begun in aggressive fashion, to give Zimbabwe a shot at a surprise win. But Deonarine, while building important stands with Denesh Ramdin and Kieron Pollard, made an unbeaten 32 and took his team home.

Gayle admitted the need for more improvement. "There are still some things for us to work on, but we will try to improve our cricket as much as possible in future matches," he said.

Zimbabwe captain Prosper Utseya was critical of the pitch, which proved highly conducive to pace bowlers, but added that a score of 141 was simply inadequate. "It wasn't the best pitch for ODI cricket, even though we tried our best, there was still not enough runs on the board," he said.

The fifth and final ODI will be played in Kingstown on March 14.