MELBOURNE: Australia will fancy their
chance of going through the entire home summer unbeaten after crushing the West
Indies in the first match of the Commonwealth Bank One-day series at the MCG on
Sunday night.

Scorecard

After
Australia made 256/8 from their 50 overs, any chance the Windies had of victory
effectively disappeared when they slumped to 12/3 in just the fifth over, and
they were eventually dismissed for just 143 in the 35th over.

Their
premier batsman in skipper Chris Gayle lasted until just the first ball of the
third over when he fell for seven — courtesy of a superb catch by Mitchell
Johnson at mid-off, running the same way as the ball, off the bowling of Doug
Bollinger.

The much-improved Ryan Harris then claimed Runako Morton
and Bollinger struck again in dismissing Travis Dowlin in the next two overs to
effectively end the match as a contest even before darkness had descended on
Melbourne. Harris, the man of the series against Pakistan when he took 13
wickets in just three matches, continued his stunning form since returning to
the Australian side by finishing with 24/3.

The only West Indies
player that could hold his head high was all-rounder Kieron Pollard, who not
only took his career best One-Day figures of 3-45 with the ball, but gave the
Windies brief hope by top-scoring with 31.

Brief Scores: Australia
256 for 8 (S Watson 59, R Ponting 49, R Rampaul 2-43) bt West Indies 143 in 34.2
overs (K Pollard 31, D Bollinger 2-18, R Harris 3-24, N Hauritz 3-28).