Electing to bat, Australia suffered an early blow before recovering superbly through a near-century stand between Ponting (74) and opener Tim Paine (50).
The sound beginning was build upon by half centuries from Cameron White (51) and Michael Hussey (73) as the Indian bowling, which has struggled of late, was put to the sword in merciless fashion in hot conditions.
In the morning, the hosts struck an early blow by sending back Australian opener Shane Watson, on a high coming into the series with back-to-back hundreds in the semifinal and final of the Champions Trophy in South Africa.
The burly batsman straight-drove the first ball of the series from Praveen Kumar for a boundary but then was trapped in front by an incoming ball from Ashish Nehra in the second over to which he played back.
Watson's early dismissal left Australia at five for one after eight balls and brought in visiting team's skipper Ricky Ponting to the crease.
Ponting, on a roll in one-dayers since the best-of-seven ODI series against England with two centuries and four half centuries under his belt from his last 10 innings, and Tim Paine -playing for the first time in a ODI in India -dominated the bowlers.
The duo kept the run rate at a healthy five plus to raise the 100 of their innings in the 19th over when wicketkeeper Paine tried to slash Ishant Sharma to be caught behind for 50.
Paine, who struck nine fours in his 62-ball innings, and Ponting shared 97 runs for the second wicket in 107 balls.
Ponting looked in total command, striking the ball beautifully, and hooked left arm pacer Ashish Nehra for a six.
He looked good for a 100 when he left, trapped leg before by young left-arm slow bowler Ravindra Jadeja while trying to turn the ball to the leg.
The Australia skipper faced 85 balls and hit eight fours and two sixes, the second one off Jadeja over a leaping Nehra at long off, and his dismissal at team total of 151 in the 30th over brought down the scoring rate a bit.
But that was a brief respite for the home team as Cameron White (51) and Michael Hussey (73) again stepped up the run rate after the 35th over to help Australia reach 213 for three at the end of the 40th. They added 76 runs in 77 balls.
Australia added 54 runs in the last 10 overs to leave India with an asking rate of 5.86.
Hussey, out of form before this series and a question mark against his name for the next Test series against West Indies, departed in the last over after facing 54 balls and striking the ball cleanly to hit eight fours and a six.
Source: PTI
