Australia thrash Windies in series opener

Australia made good their promise to curb Chris Gayle and after doing so, cruised to a 113-run thumping of the West Indies in the first one-day game at the MCG on Sunday.

Despite their batting never really clicking, Australia’s 8-256 appeared monstrous once the Windies lost three wickets in as many overs early in their pursuit, including their big-hitting skipper Gayle.

Gayle took seven runs from Doug Bollinger’s first over, but fell in the left-armer’s next over, when his skied pull was well caught by Mitchell Johnson running with the flight at mid-off.

Bollinger and Ryan Harris showed up the gulf in class when they knocked over Runako Morton and Travis Dowlin cheaply, which broke the backbone of the visitors’ batting.

A 64-run stand between Kieron Pollard (31) and Lendl Simmons (29) gave the West Indies some hope, but once the former was caught on the boundary the end came swiftly.

The tourists were all out for 143 in 34.2 overs, which made for an early night for a small crowd of 25,463.

Australia’s Shane Watson’s great all-round game included 59 at the top of the order – he was the only batsman to post a half-century – a return of 1-31 and a catch in the deep.

Harris continued his rapid rise in the national one-day side with 3-24 after 13 scalps in three games in the series against Pakistan, while Bollinger finished with 2-18 and spinner Nathan Hauritz 3-28.

Australia will take their 1-0 series lead to Adelaide, where game two will be played on Tuesday.

Australia’s batting never scaled any great heights, after they made a good start through a 50-run opening partnership between Watson and Shaun Marsh (20).

When skipper Ricky Ponting began well, the home side was well placed to post a big total.

But Pollard continued his good form in Australia – he starred for South Australia in the domestic Twenty20 competition – and collected 3-45 from 10 overs unchanged, which included a great delivery to bowl Ponting for 49.

Pollard slowed Australia’s innings well, but Mike Hussey (28 from 25 balls) and Johnson (21 from 20) added much-needed urgency at the death, although the total was well beyond the Windies once Gayle fell.

Gayle conceded he should have not have tried such a big pull shot so early in the innings given the value of his wicket.

“The wicket was a bit two paced to be honest and maybe I shouldn’t have looked up at the stars so early,” he said.

“I should have looked for a few more but I thought the shot was on.

“But it’s one of those things, I’m not too worried and I’ll bounce back.”

Watson was named man of the match and was pleased he could have such an impact in his 100th one-day game for his country.

“It’s something that seemed a long, long way off the last couple of years, to play 100 games, and then to contribute the way I did today is always nice,” he said.

“We knew 250 was going to be a very competitive score if we bowled really well, especially if we got Chris Gayle out nice and early as well, it was always going to make it that little bit easier.

“Everyone contributed really well to be able to finish them off pretty easily.”

The West Indies are without a glut of senior players through injury – among them Dwayne Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan – and Gayle said they had to forget about this performance quickly.

“It’s not the sort of start we wanted in this ODI series, but having said that the damage is done so it’s back to square one,” he said.

“We’re looking forward to Adelaide and getting back into the series as quickly as possible.”

Get Australia's best Cricket opinion emailed daily.

Like this content? Buzz it up!

Free Email updates:

• Get a daily Cricket email

Our daily emails are only sent if there is content for the sport or that author. You can subscribe to multiple daily emails; or get the daily Roar email with all our content in it. We value privacy. More...

© 2007 AAP