Virender Sehwag hammered the highest ever score in ODI cricket as India amassed their best ever team total - 418 for five - in the fourth ODI against the West Indies in Indore.

The Windies put up a decent fight in reply, but were never really going to challenge a monstrous target, ultimately falling to 265 all out for a 153-run defeat and three-one series loss.

February last year witnessed Sachin Tendulkar reach 200 not out against South Africa, but Thursday saw Sehwag go 19 better across a knock of truly brutal proportions.

Racing through the records across a Holkar Cricket Stadium pitch void of any help for the bowlers, the right-handed Sehwag punished seven sixes and as many as 25 balls during his 149-ball stay at the crease.

There was no stopping the swashbuckling Sehwag, who presented Darren Sammy with an easy catch at deep cover when on 170, but was left to wield the willow even more as the Windies captain dropped the sitter.

The prolific opening batsman enjoyed two century stands - the first alongside Gautam Gambhir (67) and the next Suresh Raina (55). He played his part in the run out of both men, but made sure that his arguable bursts of selfishness paid off in the end.

Such was the velocity of the vigil, Sehwag had more than enough time to become the first man to score 250 in a single ODI inning. With more than three overs remaining, though, the tired record-breaker looped a long ball down the ground. 12th man Anthony Martin got under it to teach his skipper a thorough lesson in catching in the deep with a safe take.

Sehwag rightly departed to a standing ovation similar to the appreciative crescendo that greeted Tendulkar in Gwalior some 18 months ago.

With Chris Gayle still locked in a dispute with the WICB, the Windies lacked the genuine firepower to even trouble the Indians in reply.

Denesh Ramdin took his cue for his for his highest ODI score of 96, but there was nothing in the hunt after Rahul Sharma had reduced the pursuit to 100 for five with three relatively quick scalps on debut.

The leg-spinner bowled with guile and wisdom beyond his 25 years. Ravindra Jadeja followed that up with three scalps of his own, while Ravichandran Ashwin had a quiet day. Amit Mishra and Harbhajan Singh's time in the Indian limited-overs fold seems, indeed, over.

Skipper Sehwag, standing in for the rested MS Dhoni, bagged the Man of the Match award for his truly tremendous effort. The fifth and final ODI gets underway in Chennai on Friday, after which the Indians must focus on the proverbial bigger fish they have to fry in Australia.