adodara: India paid a heavy price for their pathetic batting display against Australia who humiliated the hosts with an emphatic nine-wicket victory in the fifth cricket one-dayer to take an unassailable 3-1 lead in the seven-match series here today.

The Australians first bundled out the home team for a paltry 148 in 39.4 overs and then raced to the target with 24.1 overs to spare in a totally lop-sided contest at the Reliance Stadium.

Paceman Mitchel Johnson wrecked the Indian innings with a devastating five for 26 while Brett Lee chipped in with two for 42 as the strong Indian batting line-up surprisingly caved in without much of a fight on a good batting track.

Only Sachin Tendulkar, playing his 400th ODI, stood bravely amid the ruins with a 73-ball 47 while Zaheer Khan (28) and Irfan Pathan (26) were the other notable contributers.

The Australians hit up the required runs without much fuss with Adam Gilchrist returning to form with an unbeaten 77-ball 79 and captain Ricky Ponting scoring 39 not out to steer the team to a facile win.

The victory has ensured that Australians can no longer lose the series while the Indians have been left with the stiff task of winning the remaining two matches in Nagpur (Oct 14) and Mumbai (Oct 17) to level the series.

Apart from his batting fireworks, Gilchrist made the match memorable for himself by pouching a record-equalling six catches, the fifth time he has performed the feat. Johnson also stole the spotlight with his career-best five wicket haul which earned him the man-of-the-match award. Except for winning the toss, nothing seemed to go right for the Indians who never really recovered from the disastrous start which saw Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid returning to the pavillion from the very first over.

The hosts slid to 43 for five inside the first power play of ten overs, recovered to 92 through a 49-run stand between Tendulkar and Pathan (26) and then reached 148 in only 39.4 overs after the last wicket pair of Zaheer Khan and RP Singh (12) put on 41 runs to pull the team forward from 107 for nine.

It was the 25-year-old Johnson who played a stellar role in the Australian victory with four of his victims Yuvraj Singh, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Irfan Pathan and Murali Kartik being caught by Gilchrist who had an amazing match behind the stumps.

Johnson's other victim was Robin Uthappa who fell leg before. Fellow speedster Brett Lee took two wickets, including Rahul Dravid for a first ball duck, while Chinaman bowler Brad Hogg and another left arm pacer Nathan Bracken secured a wicket each to put the Indians on the mat.

The home team had a terrible start with Ganguly being run out off the fourth ball and Dravid in the first over of Lee and the final total they posted was not only totally inadequate but also was the lowest at this venue, below West Indies 181 made against India in January this year.