THE 2003 CABLE & Wireless Test series between the West Indies and Australia is over and as expected, Australia are the winners.

To their credit, however, and thanks to Brian Lara, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Omari Banks and, to a lesser extent, Vasbert Drakes, the West Indies finished in style with a brilliant and memorable batting performance in the final innings of the series.

After losing the first Test by nine wickets, the second by 118 runs, the third by nine wickets and facing a whitewash for the first time at home, the West Indies responded with a record-breaking performance that left the fans pondering what might have been and looking to the future, not only with hope but also with confidence - particularly as far as their batting is concerned.

After dismissing Australia for 240 - thanks, surprisingly, to their bowlers who were clobbered for 489 and 147 for one, 576 for four declared and 238 for three declared, and 605 for nine declared in the previous matches, the West Indies looked on course for victory.

To the disappointment of the fans, however, the West Indies also were dismissed for 240, and with Australia chipping to 242 without loss on the third day, it appeared to be business as usual.

Although the West Indies struck back by limiting Australia to 417, the victory target was 418, and with no team ever scoring as many runs to win a Test match, with the West Indies, whose best was 408 in the second Test, failing to achieve such a score in their previous seven innings of the series, the odds were stacked heavily against them and even more so when they skidded to 74 for three, despite Lara's wonderful attempt while scoring 60, when they lost wicket number four at 165, and despite a fighting partnership of 123 between Sarwan and Chanderpaul, when they lost wickets number five and six at 288 with the target still 130 runs away, only the bowlers to come, Australia armed with the second new ball, and Brett Lee firing away.

Thanks to Chanderpaul and the plucky Banks, however, the West Indies stood their ground, and in one of their greatest performances of all time, in one of the greatest performances of all time, and against one of the best teams of all time, marched to victory with three wickets in hand.

And although Australia had already won the series, even though they had completely outplayed the West Indies in the previous matches, it was more than a consolation - more than a team winning the last match of a contest against a team that already conquered and by then was not too interested.

It was a victory well deserved and worth celebrating because, as Glenn McGrath, Justin Langer and captain Steve Waugh himself had said before the match, Australia wanted to win all four and they went into the match with nothing on their minds but to bury the West Indies - to become the first team in history to sweep the former world champions before their home crowd.

Normally one victory is nothing to cheer, nothing to be happy about ­ certainly not when it was preceded by three heavy losses.

In the circumstances, however, this one is special. To win after what had gone before, to win after failing to better 240, to win after being asked to do what no other team has ever done since the beginning of Test cricket in 1876, to win after looking down the barrel three times, and with six wickets down and still so many runs to get, to win while losing only one more wicket was magnificent, and hats off to Jermaine Lawson for his brilliant bowling in the first innings and to Merv Dillon for his contribution in the second innings.