Melbourne, Feb 5 (IANS): India were outplayed by Australia in the tri-series opener here Sunday in a rain-affected match reduced to 32 overs a side.
The batting woes for the visitors continued as they were cleaned up for 151 in response to Australia's imposing 216 for five at the back of some power-hitting by Matthew Wade (67) and David Hussey (61). India, who had raised hopes of an improved show on the dismal tour by winning the second Twenty20 International here Friday, once again came short against a potent Australian attack led on the day by Clint McKay (4-20).
But it was left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc (2-33) who did the early damage and once again was too hot for the Indian batters. His first scalp was of Sachin Tendulkar (2), who reached out a wide one and hit it straight to Ricky Ponting at backward point. It was master blaster's first One-day outing since the World Cup final in April.
Gambhir's dismissal reminded the torrid time Indian batsmen had in the Test series. The southpaw, who scored a 50 in Friday's game, poked at a sharp rising delivery off Starc only for a regulation catch to wicketkeeper Wade, leaving India 13 for two in their steep run-chase.
Virat Kohli (31) and Rohit Sharma (21), rated as the future of Indian cricket, provided brief resistance with a counter-attack before McKay got rid of them in the same over to make it 65 for four.
Wickets falling at regular intervals highlighted the Indian innings and Suresh Raina was the next man to depart at the score of 77, scooping a dolly to David Hussey as a short ball from Daniel Christian got big on him.
Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (29) and Ravindra Jadeja (19) hung around for a while before the inevitable happened.
Earlier, Wade struck 67 while Hussey's 61 off 30 balls spurred Australia to 216 for five from a struggling 35 for two in 11 overs before intermittent rain stopped play for around three hours.
David's elder brother Mike contributed 45 off 32 balls as Australia amassed 181 runs in 21 overs post the break. Indian spinners were hammered all over the park after seamers R. Vinay Kumar and Praveen Kumar kept things tight early on. The Indians were set a revised 217-run target as per the Duckworth-Lewis method.
The spinners' lacklustre effort was summed up best when David counted for most of the 19 runs in the last over bowled under confusion by Rahul Sharma and Jadeja.
Leg-spinner Sharma (1-44) was removed after two balls when the umpires realised that he had already completed his quota of six overs. Under the circumstances, only two bowlers were allowed to bowl seven overs. IPL's latest millionaire Jadeja was brought for the final four balls and his bad day was made worse by David, who smashed him for two sixes over deep midwicket. The Indian all-rounder ended up with figures of 41 in 2.4 overs.
David also enjoyed batting against offie Ravichandran Ashwin, who went for 48 in five overs. His quick-fire innings comprised three sixes and four boundaries.
Wade took control of the proceedings in the earlier part of the innings, hitting four down the ground and two over the ropes in his 69-ball knock.
Earlier, Fast bowler Vinay Kumar (3-21), who was bought for $1 million in the IPL auction back home Saturday, bowled with discipline initially and was rewarded with the wickets of dangerous David Warner (6) and Ricky Ponting (2).