Australia will fancy its chance of going through the entire 2009/10 home summer unbeaten after crushing the West Indies in a disappointing start to the one-day series at the MCG on Sunday night.
In yet another game that brings into doubt the future of one-day cricket - just 25,463 fans went to the MCG in ideal weather conditions to watch the home side crush the outclassed visitors by 113 runs with the game finishing over an hour early.
Amidst the continuing declining popularity of the 50 over game, the attendance was less than half the 60,000 strong crowd that turned up at the MCG just two nights ago to watch Australian beat Pakistan in a Twenty20 international - in a match that was played in much colder conditions - and was also far less than the 43,000 which saw Victoria beat Tasmania in a domestic Twenty20 match at the MCG in mid January.
And if this was the best the West Indies could offer in the first of the five match series, it does not auger well for the rest of the series - particularly in terms of crowds.
Already this summer Australia has beaten West Indies 2-0 and Pakistan 3-0 in three Test series as well as clean sweeping Pakistan 5-0 in the recent one-day series but there were hopes the Windies would be more competitive - particularly after their win over the Prime Ministers' XI in their warm-up game in Canberra.
But after Australia made 8-256 from its 50 overs, any chance the Windies had of victory effectively disappeared when they slumped to 3-12 in just the fifth over as 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 3-24.
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.
But the dismissal of the man who starred for South Australia in the recent KFC Big Bash competition in the 25th over - caught by Johnson at long-on off the bowling of off-spinner Nathan Hauritz - ended any chance the Windies had of staging a late fightback.
Earlier, Shane Watson celebrated his 100th one-day international appearance for Australia by top scoring with 59 as Australia failed to build on a great start provided to it by Watson and skipper Ricky Ponting.
Australia looked poised for a huge score when it reached 1-118 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