Zimbabwean wicket-keeper Tatenda Taibu (right) catches the ball from behind the wicket, while West Indies batsman Chris Gayle look on during the fourth ODI in Harare yesterday.
Unrecognisable as the lambs who so timidly succumbed to defeat in the previous two one-day internationals, the West Indies roared like enraged lions throughout the fourth here yesterday to tear apart Zimbabwe by 72 runs under the Duckworth/Lewis system.
The main, but not the only, men were left-handed opener Wavell Hinds and fast bowler Fidel Edwards.
Hinds' unbeaten 127 underpinned a commanding, rain-shortened total of 256 for three off 45 overs; Edwards' pace, control and swerve in his first ODI, and first bowl in over two weeks, took care of Zimbabwe's first five batsmen in his first five overs, effectively ending the contest and once more placing his name in the record books.
The result levelled the series 2-2 and set up a grand finale in today's fifth and final match at the same Harare Sports Club ground.
It is an enticing prospect for another expected sell-out crowd of 10,000 and the millions of tv viewers spread across the globe, if not everywhere in the Caribbean.
The West Indies batsmen, who had succumbed to 125 and 208 all out last Sunday and Wednesday, thumped Zimbabwe's stunned bowlers for nine sixes and 22 fours before heavy rain intervened to end the carnage.
Hinds' fourth, and highest, ODI hundred, Chris Gayle's violent 51 off 34 balls in an opening stand of 96 and Ramnaresh Sarwan's first significant innings of the series provided the momentum and a total of over 300 was probable but for the interruption.
When the weather relented and play restarted two and a quarter hours later, Zimbabwe, who set a revised 233 to win from 32 overs, were eagerly devoured by the rampant Edwards. They only managed to reach as many as 150 for seven after Brian Lara saved his main attacker's energies for today.
Edwards had developed a ravenous appetite for wickets through 16 inactive days resting a sore ankle sustained in the second Test.
He was so anxious to get back to business that he had to abort his first, overeager approach but he quickly calmed himself and proceeded to deliver late, full length outswingers, along with an occasional limb-threatening bouncer, at speeds consistently timed in the high 140 kph (80 mph) range.
The Zimbabweans had no answer against the white ball under an overcast sky and a pitch freshened by two hours under covers.
After sweeping aside the first five wickets for 10 runs, Edwards added a sixth in the day's final over, making him the only bowler to claim as many victims in his first ODI, four others each took five.
He is the second, along with the Australian medium-pacer Tony Dodemaide, to have five or more wickets on debut in both forms of the game.
It followed the 21-year-old Barbadian's five for 36 in his first Test innings, against Sri Lanka in Kingston last June, and he has been an international cricketer for a mere five months.
Although he afterwards rated the Kingston performance above this, he will never find as lethal a first ball as the one that sent the new left-handed opener Barney Rogers' middle-stump somersaulting 10 yards backwards, no matter how long his career lasts.
It was the perfect yorker, a replica of the two Heath Streak twice produced in earlier matches to wreck Brian Lara's stumps. Delivered from over the wicket and timed at 140 kph, it ducked in late and went under Rogers' bat while it was still on the downswing.
His other victims were equally clue-less.
After several tries, Yusi Sibanda finally touched an outswinger on its way to Ridley Jacobs and, next ball, Craig Wishart was late, on the back foot, in front of middle and leg stumps and plainly lbw to one that came through straight.
In Edwards' next over, Mark Vermuelen, Zimbabwe's form batsmen, fended a steep lifter off his face to gully, much as he did in the second innings of the first Test.
In his next, Stuart Masikenyeri's attempt to on-drive a leg-stump outswinger lobbed to mid-on off the leading edge.
Edwards was replaced by Gayle's off-spin after five overs and five wickets for 10 runs as the Zimbabweans heaved a visible sigh of relief.
After captain Streak was caught at point cutting Gayle, his deputy Tatenda Taibu and the left-handed Sean Ervine offered some entertainment for the crowd that remained through the rain with an enjoyable, if meaningless, partnership of 101 from 15.3 overs.
Little Taibu is an effervescent character who, at 20, is already vice-captain.
He is hugely popular and his 66 from 85 balls, with eight fours, at least gave a little life to a match long since decided.
He was Edwards' sixth wicket, swinging wildly in the final over.
Edwards' record performance was understandably enough to earn him the Man of the Match award. But the foundation for the victory was established by Hinds and the batsmen, and by the bold selection, even in the absence of the injured Vasbert Drakes, of both Edwards and Ravi Rampaul in preference to a seventh batsman.
In the end, Shivnarine Chanderpaul only had to face five balls and Ricardo Powell didn't get in at all while Lara didn't have to call on Corey Collymore for a single over.
Hinds' hundred was some, if not entire, compensation for the two he has spurned in the Tests with careless strokes at 79 in the first and 81 in the second.
Gayle's awesome power was the first shock for Zimbabwe once Streak chose to bowl on winning the toss. He took 16 off Andy Blignaut's fourth over and another 16 off Streak's sixth.
He had 46 of his 51 in boundaries (three sixes and seven fours) when, like Lara seven overs later, his attempt to guide Ervine through the empty slips went too fine and Taibu dived low to snare him.
The opening stand of 96 from 91 balls was clear indication of the West Indies intentions. Lara further confirmed them when he stepped out the first ball he took from Ray Price, the previously miserly left-arm spinner, and hoisted him for six in the direction of Robert Mugabe's residence across the road.
His dismissal for 14 at 124 was an obvious setback but it did not have the usual numbing effect on the rest.
Hinds and Sarwan carefully regrouped before gradually reasserting command in a stand of 107 from 21 overs during which the left-handed opener added sixes over long-on from Brent, Ervine and Price to his first in the same direction off Brent.
Sarwan, gathering confidence with every over, had another in the same direction off Price.
By the time Sarwan was caught on the cover boundary off Streak in the 43rd over, the storm clouds were gathering, the lightning flashing and thunder rolling in the distance.
A few hours later, the tempest that raged was called Fidel.