Ravi Rampaul's four-wicket haul kept West Indies' series hopes alive as they beat India by 16 runs after a roller-coaster ride in the third one-day international in Ahmedabad.

Rampaul struck with his first two deliveries of the match to dent India's top order, then clinched the final wicket to seal a tight win just as it looked as if India's final pair might steal the show.

Equally crucial to the West Indies' victory were the heroics of Darren Sammy and Andre Russell in the final overs of their innings, as the pair added 93 runs in the last seven overs to give the tourists a competitive 260 for five after Marlon Samuels' half-century had laid the foundation.

With Rampaul having Virender Sehwag caught behind and Gautam Gambhir trapped lbw for golden ducks, India were on the back foot for the majority of their run chase but still threatened to clinch the series thanks to a classy 95 from Rohit Sharma.

The right-hander added 91 for the seventh wicket with Ravichandran Ashwin to keep India in the game after they had slipped to 105 for six in a chase which was never short on drama.

Even as the wickets went down the runs continued to flow, with Parthiv Patel stroking 39 from 35 deliveries despite the regular loss of partners at the other end.

The West India benefited from a couple of questionable umpiring decisions - Sunail Narine's first wicket in one-day cricket came from a controversial lbw decision against Virat Kohli, while Suresh Raina was wrongly given out caught down the leg side off Rampaul - but were still full value for their victory.

Had captain Sammy not dropped both Sharma and Ashwin early in their partnership then the game might have been sewn up just 30 overs into the Indian reply. Instead a packed crowd at the Sardar Patel Stadium were treated to an extra hour and a half of entertainment as the Indian duo resurrected the innings and took the required rate down to a run a ball going into the final 11 overs.

The tricky Narine changed the course of the match when he trapped Ashwin (31) lbw with the final ball of the 40th over, but there were more twists to come as the big-hitting Abhimanyu Mithun refused to give in.

Mithun found the boundary to keep India on track, only for Sammy to atone for his sins when he brilliantly ran out Sharma in the 44th over.

Still India's final pair wouldn't give up, adding 28 in 19 deliveries until their luck finally ran out and Rampaul trapped Mithun lbw with a reverse-swinging yorker, leaving a raucous crowd stunned in disbelief.

Earlier Resident pitch pundit Sunil Gavaskar had demanded a score of around 250-odd from the team batting first and the West Indies obliged, thanks to Sammy (41 not out from 17 balls) and Russell (40 not out from 18 balls).

The big-hitting duo added a monstrous 79 runs, more than half of which came in the latter half of the stand, from just 5.4 overs. There was no hiding from the onslaught, with Mithun's final over travelling for 23 and Umesh Yadav fetching 20 from his final six deliveries.

The visitors were grateful to their captain and his sidekick, who delivered the lofty heights a shaky top order and modest batting Powerplay had earlier threatened to stifle.

Lendl Simmons endured a rare failure, while Danza Hyatt was uncomfortable as an opener after Adrian Barath was dropped from the XI.

Samuels (58) and Darren Bravo (26) - the nation's most in-form ODI batsmen of the past two series - dug in across a steadying 55-run stand before a leg injury got the better of the latter. Under the ICC's new rules, brought into play in October, the left-hander was not allowed a runner and was therefore forced to retire hurt.

Samuels threw away a chance at a ton soon after Bravo returned to the hut. Showing his hand early in the batting Powerplay, the right-hander was toppled by pffspinner Aswhin.

Denesh Ramdin and Kieron Pollard saw out the remainder of the five-over tactic, which yielded less than 20 runs. With the wicketkeeper-batsman and big-hitting right-hander unable to go any further than 38 and 29 respectively, the pieces were there to be picked up.

Thankfully, for a team fighting to stay alive in a five-match series they trailed two-nil going into the clash, Sammy and Russell got it right. Theirs was a carefree approach that brought four sixes and nine fours. What the specialist batsmen couldn't manage, the all-rounders did.