February 8, 2010 (Basseterre) - Australia sealed a comfortable 113-run victory against West Indies in the opening game of the five-match one-day international series at Melbourne.

Shane Watson made 59, Ricky Ponting hit two sixes in his 49 and Mike Hussey added a rapid late 28 but Australia were limited to an average 256-8.

But the Windies lost Chris Gayle to the first ball of the third over and were 12-3 two overs later.
Keiron Pollard hit 31 but the innings ended on 143 in the 35th over.

Windies skipper Gayle had reportedly made a bold prediction that his team would win the series 4-1, but unless losing the first match emphatically was part of a plan to lull the Australians into a false sense of security, that statement may now have to be revised.

It was optimistic enough given that the Windies had lost eight of their last nine one-day internationals in Australia with the other abandoned because of rain.

But the tourists were deprived of half their first-choice XI, with batting lynchpins Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan, pace bowlers Fidel Edwards and Jerome Taylor and key all-rounder Dwayne Bravo all sidelined by injury.