Australia crush West Indies as unbeaten summer continues
Ryan Harris took three wickets as West Indies fell well short of Australia's 256 for 8.
Ricky Ponting was not entirely satisfied despite seeing his Australia side beat West Indies by 113 runs in the first one-day international at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
His team let a good position with the bat slip, scoring 256 for eight having been 118 for one, but West Indies lost their first three wickets within five overs and never recovered. "I thought it was a reasonable effort," Ponting said in the post-match presentation. "I thought we could have got a few more runs and bowled and fielded a bit better. We've got to make sure we don't take the foot off [the gas]."
Ponting believes consistency of selection has been an important factor in a home summer which has seen Australia go unbeaten thus far. "We've been really careful the last few series to make sure we're not tinkering too much," he said. "Everyone's happy with what they've achieved and we just want to keep improving."
The West Indies captain Chris Gayle, who made only seven in his side's total of 143, challenged his side to improve for Tuesday's second encounter. "This is not the start we wanted," he said. "It's back to the drawing board and hopefully we can level it in Adelaide."
Gayle, who before the start of the five-match series predicted his side would win 4-1, joked: "That's the only one they're going to get.
Gayle was happy with his decision to bowl first after winning the toss. "It was a tough decision but this is what we wanted to do," he said. "I thought we did well to restrict Australia to 256 but we fell way short. It's very disappointing to lose three wickets in the first five overs. Hopefully we can get everyone up and move on to Adelaide."
This summer Australia have beaten West Indies 2-0 and Pakistan 3-0 in three-Test series, as well as sweeping Pakistan 5-0 in the recent one-day series, but there were hopes the West Indies would be more competitive in the one-day format.
But any chance the visitors had of victory all but disappeared when they slumped to 12 for three in the fifth over. Gayle lasted until the first ball of the third over, when he fell 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 end the day-nighter as a contest even before darkness had descended.
Harris, the man of the series against Pakistan when he took 13 wickets in three matches, continued his stunning form since returning to the Australia side by finishing with three for 24.
The only West Indies player who could hold his head high was the all-rounder Kieron Pollard, who not only took his career-best one-day figures of three for 45, but also gave the Windies brief hope by top-scoring with 31.
But his dismissal in the 25th over – caught by Johnson at long-on off the bowling of the off-spinner Nathan Hauritz – ended any chance West Indies had of staging a fightback.
Earlier, in front of a less than half-full MCG, Shane Watson celebrated his 100th one-day international appearance by top scoring with 59 but Australia failed to build on the great start provided to by Watson and Ponting.
They looked poised for a huge score when they reached 118 for one after 25 overs but thanks to Pollard the home side's total looked achievable before the visitors' top-order collapse.
Watson and Ponting's 85-run stand was the highest of the match as Watson – who has taken eight years to bring up his 100-game milestone – reached 50 in the 23rd over while Ponting fell just short when bowled by Pollard for 49.
Watson's half-century came off 65 balls with six boundaries, although he had a big scare when he was almost run out on 49 as he attempted to scramble back to his crease – minus his bat – after slipping over mid pitch.
But luckily for Watson, Gayle fumbled the ball at the bowler's end when a clean take would have seen him run out by yards in a moment that seemed to sum up the West Indies' entire performance.