A career-best 43 off 21 balls from Jerome Taylor boosted West Indies to a defendable total of 263 for nine in the fourth one-day international against South Africa on Friday.

Tail-ender Taylor smashed his unbeaten 43 with five fours and two sixes after the visitors had won the toss and chosen to bat.

Taylor, whose previous best score was the 13 he made against Sri Lanka in Providence in 2006-07, shared 57 runs for the unbroken 10th wicket with fellow paceman Fidel Edwards (12 not out).

The last pair helped West Indies recover after their middle order squandered the solid start made by Brenton Parchment and Sewnarine Chattergoon, who put on 97 for the first wicket.

score board

WEST INDIES
Parchment lbw Nel 48
C’goon c Boucher b Pollock 48
Chanderpaul c Smith b Botha 28
Samuels c Gibbs b Nel 4
Bravo run out 18
Browne c&b Morkel 34
Sammy c Boucher b Ntini 2
Lewis b Morkel 15
Taylor (not out) 43
Powell (run out) 0
Edwards (not out) 12
Extras (LB-8, NB-2, W-1) 11
Total (9 wickets, 50 overs) 263
Fall of wickets: 1-97, 2-100, 3-108, 4-150, 5-155, 6-167, 7-200, 8-205, 9-206.
Bowling: Pollock 10-3-38-1, Ntini 9-1-80-1, Nel 10-1-44-2, Morkel 10-0-60-2, Botha 10-0-32-1, Kallis 1-0-1-0.