The West Indies’ ghastly five-day nightmare in the third Cable and Wireless Test on a dreadful pitch of uneven bounce with wide cracks culminated just before tea yesterday in Australia’s third successive victory and a 3-0 series lead for Steve Waugh’s combative unit.

The nine-wicket triumph, which was set up by Man-of-the-Match Stuart McGill’s five-wicket second innings haul for 75 runs, giving him match figures of nine for 182 in 75.5 overs, carried Australia to within one victory of becoming the first visiting team to complete a series clean sweep in the Caribbean.

It was Aussie captain Steve Waugh 36th Test win, equalling Clive Lloyd’s standard. He stands an excellent chance of the record for himself should his all-conquering outfit win the fourth and final Test starting in Antigua on Friday.

West Indies, starting the day on 187 for three with high hopes of salvaging a draw, never recovered from the early loss of Ramnaresh Sarwan and captain Brian Lara and were dismissed for an inadequate 284.

Sarwan fell to the day’s first ball from leg-spinner MacGill without adding to his overnight 58 while Lara only added a single to his bedtime score of 41.

There was 61-run sixth-wicket stand between debutant all-rounder Omari Banks, with a purposeful 32 off 75 balls and Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who laboured for 141 minutes in carving out 21 dogged runs, before the last five wickets fell for 34 runs in 19 overs after lunch.

This left Australia with a mere eight runs for victory and they duly completed victory, reaching eight for one in 2.3 overs to become the first visiting team to win three successive Tests in the Caribbean.

It was the West Indies’ fifth defeat against 20 wins in 40 Tests at Kensington and their second successive loss here after New Zealand’s triumph last year.

However, Jamaican fast bowler Jermaine Lawson gave the die-hard fans at the ground something to cheer about by collecting a rare hat-trick.

Lawson trapped left-handed opener Justin Langer leg-before-wicket with his first delivery of Australia’s second innings to become the fourth West Indian to take a Test match hat-trick and the first to do so in the Caribbean.

Lawson had bowled Brett Lee and MacGill with his last two balls of the Australian first innings but it was small consolation for Lara’s young team of inexperienced cricketers.

Earlier, there was a dramatic start to the final day as the West Indies suffered an immediate setback when Sarwan was unfortunately given out leg-before-wicket by Indian umpire Srinivasa Venkataraghavan to the first ball of the day from MacGill.

As Sarwan pushed forward, the ball pitched just before striking him on the boot on the line of off-stump but Venkataraghavan upheld the appeal from the Australians.

Three overs later, Lara was another leg-before-wicket victim when he came inside his stumps to play through the leg-side but missed a full-length delivery from seam bowler Andy Bichel and was given out by umpire, David Shepherd.

MacGill was replaced by fast bowler Brett Lee, who suffered a laceration to the fourth finger on his right hand trying to stop a drive from Banks.

This did not stop Waugh from taking the second new ball after 85.5 overs and entrusting it to Lee and Jason Gillespie but the move did not reap any dividends as Banks and Chanderpaul featured in a solid unbroken half-century stand, taking the score to 250 for five at lunch.

At that stage, the arrears were just 27 runs but on resumption, MacGill broke the threatening two-hour alliance between Chanderpaul and Banks in the fifth over after the interval, to start the West Indies’ lower order slide.

The 20-year-old Banks, Anguilla’s first Test cricketer, pushed forward uncertainly at a sharply spinning leg-break from MacGill and edged a catch to Matthew Hayden at first slip.

He batted overall for 114 minutes, faced 75 balls and struck four boundaries.

Chanderpaul followed in the next over for 21, unable to get his bat out of the away of an unplayable outswinger from Gillespie and deflected a catch to wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist.

MacGill struck again when he bowled Vasbert Drakes for a duck and gained his fifth wicket when Tino Best pulled a long hop straight to Bichel at short midwicket.

But wicketkeeper Carlton Baugh, with a six over midwicket off MacGill and an elegant cover-driven boundary off the wicket-less Glenn McGrath, and Lawson added 19 runs for the last wicket to ensure Australia bat again.

Lawson returned to remove Langer with his first ball and write his name in the pages of West Indies’ cricket history.

Another chapter could be inscribed in the coming days in Antigua unless the West Indies can prevent the awesome Australians from repeating their 1999 victory there.

AUSTRALIA 1st innings 605-9 declared

West Indies 1st innings 328

West Indies 2nd innings (o/n 187-3)

C.Gayle stp. Gilchrist b MacGill 56

D.Smith lbw b Lee 5

D.Ganga lbw b Lee 6

R.Sarwan lbw b MacGill 58

B.Lara lbw b Bichel 42

S.Chanderpaul c wkp. Gilchrist b Gillespie 21

O.Banks c Hayden b MacGill 32

C.Baugh run-out 18

V.Drakes b MacGill 0

T.Best c Bichel b MacGill 0

J.Lawson not out 5

Extras: (b-15, lb-23, nb-2, w-1) 41

Total: (all out, 116 overs) 284

Fall of wickets: 1-15, 2-31, 3-94, 4-187, 5-195, 6-256, 7-256, 8-261, 9-265.

Bowling: McGrath 18-4-39-0, Gillespie 28-11-37-1, MacGill 36-11-75-5 (w-1, nb-1), Lee 15-6-44-2, Bichel 12-2-35-1 (nb-1), Ponting 2-0-6-0, Waugh 4-1-6-0, Lehmann 1-0-4-0.

AUSTRALIA 2nd innings

J.Langer lbw b Lawson 0

M.Hayden not out 2

D.Lehmann not out 4

Extras: (b-2) 2

Total: (1 wicket, 2.3 overs) 8

Fall of wickets: 1-0.