Australia crush West Indies by 113 runs

-Scorecard: Aus vs WI, 1st ODI

Australia [ Images ] on Sunday crushed West Indies [ Images ] by 113 runs in the first One-day International at the Melbourne [ Images ] Cricket Ground.

Chasing an attainable 257 on a dry, hard pitch in warm conditions, Chris Gayle's [ Images ] men were bowled out for 143 in the 35th over.

Fast bowler Ryan Harris (3/24) and off spinner Nathan Hauritz [ Images ] (3/28) continued their brilliant form with the ball.

The visitors' only true resistance came in the form of a 64-run stand between Kieron Pollard (31) and Lendl Simmons (29) in the middle order, but that was squashed by Hauritz and Shane Watson [ Images ] at the halfway mark.

Earlier, Watson celebrated his 100th ODI appearance for Australia by top scoring with 59, as the home team failed to build on a great start provided to it by Watson and skipper Ricky Ponting [ Images ].

Australia 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 gettable 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 in One-day Internationals, reached 50 in the 23rd over, while Ponting fell just short when bowled by Pollard for 49.

Talking about the team's performance after the game, Gayle said: "It's very disappointing -- this is not the start we wanted, it's a terrible display. The way we go about our batting is our biggest downfall."

"I thought we did pretty well with the ball, the wicket was a bit slower [than when the Australians were batting] but I thought we should have got 257. We thought we were capable, but we fell well short," ABC Sport quoted Gayle, as saying.