Ponting was in brutal form as he led Australia to a comfortable victory

Australia captain Ricky Ponting fired a brilliant unbeaten century to ease his side to a seven-wicket victory over New Zealand in the first ODI in Adelaide.

Wicket-keeper Brendon McCullum turned on the style with the bat for the Black Caps as he struck 96 off 103 balls to help the visitors total 254-7.

However, Adam Gilchrist got the Aussies off to a flier with 51 off 29 balls.

And Ponting (107no) and Michael Clarke (48) shared a stand of 135 to help ease the hosts home with 45 balls to spare.

The century was Ponting's first at the Adelaide Oval, but his 24th in one-day internationals.

And it capped a fine all-round performance from his side, after his bowlers had restricted New Zealand to a below-par total.

606: DEBATE Normal service resumed by the Aussies, after last year's blip bigfluffylemon

Having won the toss, the Kiwis lost Lou Vincent early to a superb catch by James Hopes running from third man, before McCullum and Jamie How built a fine partnership of 99 to leave the Kiwis 115-1 in the 23rd over.

However, a fine return spell from Shaun Tait broke the tourists' momentum and even though McCullum found decent support from Ross Taylor (50) and Jacob Oram (32no), 254-7 rarely looked enough.

And so it proved after Gilchrist's blistering start, which included six fours and two sixes, with Ponting and Clarke happy to play their shots on a flat wicket.

I think 280 was probably the minimum required on that wicket NZ captain Daniel Vettori

Clarke eventually fell to Kyle Mills, whose figures of 2-68 did not represent some decent swing bowling, but Andrew Symonds (28no) stuck around as Ponting completed his century and saw Australia home.

"It was a pretty good all-round effort, really," said Ponting.

"We didn't bowl as well as I would've liked early up but I gave them a bit of a 'ribber' at the first drinks break and after that it was really good to restrict them to 250.

"Then the batting was superb. However fluent it may have looked, I think I used every part of my bat in making my hundred but it was good fun and it's a great start to the series for us."

New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori said: "Our score of 250-odd was below par, really. I think 280 was probably the minimum required on that wicket.

"We failed to make the most of a good start with the bat and we faltered in the last 10-15 overs.

"Then Gilchrist took any momentum we had away with his start and Ponting was just brilliant.