After losing the toss and being sent in, Australia was in deep trouble at 6-98 in the 24th over before Bailey cracked an unbeaten 125 off 110 balls to lift the home side to 7-266.

In reply, the West Indies were dismissed for 212 in 38.1 overs, with Mitchell Starc following up Friday's 5-20 with 5-32 in front of 11,121 fans.

The West Indies, who were skittled for 70 in the series opener, looked set for another painful outing after crashing to 3-33 yesterday.

Starc was the chief destroyer early on with the wickets of Chris Gayle (4), Ramnaresh Sarwan (0) and Darren Bravo (14), but opener Kieran Powell (83 off 90 balls) and Dwayne Bravo (45) swung the game the visitors' way with a quick-fire 126-run stand.

At 3-159 in the 28th over, the West Indies were well placed for victory.

But that was before another devastating spell from Starc, who snared the wickets of Powell and Devon Thomas (0) in consecutive balls as the West Indies lost 4-9 to hand all the momentum to Australia.

The Windies seemed unlucky to lose Thomas under the Decision Review System, with hot spot not showing any clear- cut evidence that he had nicked the ball behind.

Although Starc was again the hero with the ball, Australia had Bailey to thank for setting up the win.

National selectors had come under heavy criticism from some quarters for selecting Bailey as Australia's Twenty20 captain and also including him in the 50-over set-up.

But his returns have justified his positions.

After 20 ODIs, Bailey is averaging 45 at a strike rate of 81.2, while he has averaged 28.8 at a strike rate of 132 from 15 Twenty20 internationals.

All-rounder Glenn Maxwell experienced a day of mixed fortunes. The 24-year-old made a first-ball duck, before finding out he had been auctioned off to Indian Premier League side Mumbai Indians for a cool $US1 million.

He then claimed 4-63 off his 8.1 overs.