Man-of-the-Match Mitchell Marsh’s all-round performance with bat and ball was the cornerstone of Australia’s four-run victory over the West Indies at the Darren Sammy Cricket Ground in St Lucia on Wednesday night.

Marsh, whose form has been red-hot during the series scored his third half-century of the series to propel Australia to their highest score of the series. The 29-year-old son of Australian legend Geoff Marsh scored 75 from 44 balls to propel Australia to 189-6 from their 20 overs.

He got help from Aaron Finch, who scored 53 from 37 balls. Together they put on a 114-run second wicket partnership that took Australia from 12 for 1 to 126 when Finch was bowled by Hayden Walsh Jr. Dan Christian’s 22 from 14 balls at the end powered Australia to their match-winning total.

Hayden Walsh Jr was the best of the West Indies bowlers with 3-27 but Oshane Thomas gave up 31 runs in his two overs to give Australia early momentum.

Faced with their biggest chase of the series, the West Indies got off to a flyer as Lendl Simmons and Evin Lewis blasted the West Indies to 62 without loss in 4.5 overs.

Lewis had made 31 when he was bowled by Adam Zampa with the last ball of the fourth over, triggering a slide. Chris Gayle was caught in the deep for one and Zampa bowled Fletcher for 6 as the West Indies stumbled to 97 for 3.

Lendl Simmons and stand-in captain Nicholas Pooran took the West Indies score to 132 inside the 16th over and began to threaten to take the match away when Marsh struck dismissing Pooran for 16 and Simmons for 72 with successive deliveries to swing the match heavily in favour of the visitors.

The dismissals brought together Andre Russell and Fabian Allen, who plundered 47 from the next 21 balls swinging the match back in favour of the home side. They were particularly brutal in the 19th over bowled by Riley Meredith, who was smashed for four sixes in an over that yielded 25 runs.

However, he had Allen caught behind from the last ball of the over leaving the West Indies to get 11 from the last six.

Mitchell Starc limited Andre Russell to just one scoring shot in the final over to leave the West Indies four short of their target.

Marsh finished with figures of 3-34 and Zampa 2-20 that made Captain Finch a happy man.

“We stuck at it all the way, they got away in the Powerplay but that can happen,” he said.

“The way Mitch got away to flier allowed me to sit back. Then it was a chance for both of us to accelerate after the rain break. We knew if Mitchell Starc executes he’s as good as anyone in the world. Lot of faith in him.”

Marsh said he enjoyed his performance that helped get Australia on the board in the series.

“I thought the new ball came on really well tonight. We saw that with both teams,” he said.

“Growing up at the WACA, I love [facing] fast bowling, a bit of fun. It was a great all-round performance from all our bowlers. I thought it was probably par, the wicket slowed up towards the back end but with West Indies you never think it’s enough.”

Meanwhile, Pooran who was losing his first match as captain said his bowlers allowed Australia to get away and when the West Indies batted, they didn’t do enough to rotate the strike in the middle overs and it proved costly.

“We didn’t start properly, the momentum shifted in the fourth over,” he said.

“We let them get away from us and didn’t execute as good as wanted to. Maybe we could have got more singles in the middle overs, that last over was well executed by Mitchell Starc so well bowled to him. The way Hayden bowled again, Fabien Allen with the bat, he looked like Superman, so a lot of positives.”

The West Indies lead the series 3-1 with the final match set for Saturday.