Sachin Tendulkar top-scored with 55 as India struggled to 200 for nine after being sent in to bat.

The Indian total proved hopelessly inadequate as South Africa raced to a nine-wicket win with 18.4 overs to spare. They won the series 4-0 with one match rained off.

Smith and new opening partner AB de Villiers hammered the bowling all around the ground in an opening stand of 173 in 28.1 overs.

Smith, who made only one run in his first three innings in the series, batted with increasing confidence to make 79 off 85 balls. The South African captain bludgeoned three sixes and seven fours before he was caught on the long-on boundary trying to hit a fourth six.

De Villiers, who was in fluent touch from the start of his innings, made a career-best 92 not out. Playing on his home ground he faced only 98 balls and hit 12 fours and a six to stake a big claim for the opening batsman role going through to the World Cup in the West Indies next year.

De Villiers dominated the scoring early in the innings, taking some of the pressure off Smith before the South African captain went on a full-blooded attack.

The South African batting was in complete contrast to that of India, who were under pressure for most of their innings.

Sent in on a pitch which gave the South African pace bowlers some early help, India were pinned down by immaculate bowling by Shaun Pollock, who dismissed Indian captain Virender Sehwag and VVS Laxman with successive balls when the total was 18.

Tendulkar scored only four off the first 40 deliveries he faced as he and the left-handed Dinesh Mongia rebuilt the innings with a third wicket stand of 85.

Tendulkar's first boundary came in the 16th over and it was the start of a more characteristic display from India's master batsman, who hit seven more boundaries before slapping a short ball from Justin Kemp to cover, where AB de Villiers took a diving catch.

Mongia made 41 but the only other significant innings came from Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who made an aggressive 44 off 49 balls before falling to a sensational diving catch by Andre Nel off Makhaya Ntini in the 48th over.

Ntini took three for 32, taking all his wickets in his final two overs, but Pollock was the most impressive bowler, taking two for 17 in his ten overs.

It completed a fine series for Pollock, who took ten wickets for 83 runs in 36 overs in four matches. He was named man of the series.

It was the fourth successive time South African captain Graeme Smith won the toss but the first time he decided to send in the opposition.

It was also South Africa's fourth successive big win. After the first match was rained off, they won the next three matches by 157, 106 and 80 runs.

For India, it was the climax of a sequence of demoralising performances. They will need to regroup ahead of a three-match Test series starting in Johannesburg November 15. They play a four-day match against the Rest of South Africa in Potchefstroom starting Thursday.