On Monday, Australia took on Zimbabwe in Adelaide. With their place in the final assured, the world champions opted to experiment with Damien Martyn at the top of the order. It failed. Once again, the tourists fielded like demons, chipping away with some excellent run outs. It took another Houdini performance from Michael Bevan - returning to form with 75 from 91 deliveries - to extricate the hosts. Australia scored 279/7.

Zimbabwe's nemesis Brad Williams struck early, as did Brett Lee, with the result that Zim were in early strife. Grant Flower kept their hopes alive with his 94, but not even a some late fireworks by Andy Blignaut (31 from 22) could produce a miracle for the Southern Africans. Too little, too late, they slumped to a 13-run defeat.

Wednesday came and South Africa went looking for another win against the West Indies in Port Elizabeth. An under-pressure Boeta Dippenaar rescued the hosts with a patient 83 after the Windies made good use of windy, overcast conditions to have the home side in trouble at 57/3.

Dippenaar's innings was superb under the circumstances. The wicket was slow, but there was also a lot of swing available. The top order failed for the first time in the summer and, while Shaun Pollock injected some much-needed impetus towards the end, 179 did not appear the most intimidating total.

The West Indies crumbled up front. While most batsman worldwide understand the idea of not running when hitting the ball straight to fielders, the Windies did not...and paid dearly for it. Three awful run outs, all to key batsmen, made it a night that Brian Lara would rather forget.

A remarkable last-wicket stand of 37 between Ravi Rampaul and Corey Collymore gave the Windies some hope, but the South Africans' modest total proved just enough. The Windies lost by 16 runs.

Two matches were played on Sunday. Australia took on India in the penultimate round-robin match of the VB Series and the Windies took on South Africa in the fourth one-day international.

In what amounted to a dress rehearsal for the finals, Sourav Ganguly was made to regret batting first. The Indian batsmen disintegrated on a bouncy Perth pitch, against a fast and furious Brett Lee. Clocking 150 km/h regularly, Lee had Sachin and company dodging missiles with little success.

While most batsmen perished flirting at deliveries whistling past off stump, Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh added some respectability to an otherwise woefully inadequate total.

Unsurprisingly, the home team had little trouble in chasing 204, with Adam Gilchrist's 75 from 65 balls giving the fans in the upper stands plenty of catches. The tourists did not help themselves by dropping Gilchrist in the second over. The bombardment continued, with Andrew Symonds pummeling the Indian pacemen to all parts of Perth. In the end, Australia cruised home with five to spare.

That same day, the West Indies surprised everyone with their first ODI win of the series at Centurion. Batting first, South Africa's Jacques Kallis was at his irrepressible best. He smashed an unbeaten 95 as the home side amassed 297/4. A rusty Lance Klusener weighted in with 41 from 38 balls, but observers feared that the total might be a little light on what was easily the best batting surface in the series.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul, small in stature but big in heart, belted the South African attack to all parts of the ground. Ramnaresh Sarwan (77) and Brian Lara (59) wasted little time either and drove home the advantage. It was a near-perfect performance from the Caribbean outfit and one that, out of nowhere, gave them hope of drawing the series.

The final match under scrutiny saw India take on Zimbabwe for the last time in the VB Series. A dead rubber, India were looking for a confidence-boosting win, while Zimbabwe just needed a win...any win!

Another calamitous start to their innings had Heath Streak pulling out his hair in frustration. Six overs gone, Zim's score was 11/3. Ten overs later it was 85/6. While the sparse crowd bayed for an innings of note, none was forthcoming, as teenage paceman Irfan Pathan's weighed in with a career-best haul of 4/24.

Just 34.4 overs later and Zimbabwe were out for 135. This should not have provided India with any challenge, but did. Virender Sehwag went for 23, a struggling Sachin Tendulkar managed just three, stand-in skipper Rahul Dravid offered just ten and Yuvraj Singh only four. At 105/5, were Zimbabwe in with a sniff?

Never fear, however, for VVS Laxman is near. His uncharacteristically patient 32 settled the butterflies and knocked the fight out of his opponents. In the end, Hemang Badani, who took a scary blow on the helmet earlier, took them home with just five down.

Not a great week with the ball and certainly no prizes for batsmen when running between the wickets! In the end our vote goes to Shivnarine Chanderpaul whose 75-ball 92 against South Africa proves that dynamite really does come in small packages!

By John van Straaten