KINGSTOWN, St Vincent (CMC):

West Indies captain Chris Gayle is anxious to kill Zimbabwe's series hopes after guiding his side to a massive win in the third one-day international (ODI) at Arnos Vale yesterday afternoon.

After their humiliating loss to the little-rated tourists in the first match last Thursday, West Indies rebounded to level the series with a four-wicket victory on Sunday and yesterday's huge 141-run triumph gave them a valuable 2-1 lead in the five-match series.

The last two ODIs will be played tomorrow and Sunday at the same venue and Gayle is keen on putting the series out of Zimbabwe's reach.

"Hopefully we can continue and finish off the job on Friday," Gayle said.

"This is no time to relax. We still have to play hard cricket and I know that Zimbabwe will come (back) hard against us," he added.

Gayle praised all-rounder Darren Sammy and the overall team effort that rushed the Caribbean side to the lopsided victory.

Medium pacer Sammy recorded a career-best four for 26 off 10 overs that restricted Zimbabwe to 104 all out in 31.5 overs.

Sammy's fine bowling effort was backed up by pacer Kemar Roach (3-28) and fit-again all-rounder Dwayne Bravo (2-23) for West Indies, who had compiled 245 for nine off 50 overs after being sent to bat.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul (58), Adrian Barath (35) and Chris Gayle (33) were the chief scorers in the West Indies innings.

"We have started to show signs of improvement so we want to continue that and lift the standards even higher. It feels good to win, but this is the beginning. I am sure Zimbabwe will come back hard at us on Friday and we should not get too carried away now," Gayle said.

Zimbabwe's captain Prosper Utseya blamed poor batting for the defeat and declared his team will be fighting back.

"We failed to bat properly. We felt chasing 240 should not have been too much of a challenge, but we just did not bat well," Prosper said.

"The West Indies' bowlers made use of the conditions well. They bowled in the right areas, and they deserved to win. We only have a day to sort ourselves out, but it is important that we come back strongly," Prosper added.