Australia thrash West Indies by 113 runs

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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.


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).