When Brendon McCullum’s bails lit up, the lights went out on New Zealand’s World Cup dream.

It was only the fifth ball of the final but the Black Caps never recovered from their talismanic captain’s scoreless departure, crashing to a seven-wicket defeat at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

It was a disappointingly lop-sided end to a historic tournament for New Zealand in front of packed crowd of 93,000.

Their first appearance in a World Cup decider will be remembered for their inferiority to five-time champions Australia.

Grant Elliott’s 82 from 83 balls was the defiant knock in a substandard 183 off 45 overs as they failed to cope with the home team’s intensity with the ball and in the field.

Australian opener David Warner raced to 45 before a third-wicket stand of 112 off 113 balls between Steve Smith and captain Michael Clarke carried the hosts to 3-186 with 16.5 overs to spare.

Smith maintained a rich run of form with 56 not out while Clarke retires from one-day internationals on a high, racing to 74 before leaving the MCG to a standing ovation.

His performance contrasted with McCullum who won the toss but soon regretted his decision to bat, clean bowled by outstanding strike bowler Mitchell Starc.

A menace throughout the tournament with his power batting, the skipper’s emphatic exit seemed to infect his teammates.

The pressure mounted on Martin Guptill (15) and Kane Williamson (12), who both fell to poor shots.

Guptill had the consolation of becoming the tournament’s highest run-scorer, with 547, six more than Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara.

Elliott arrived at 3-39 in the 13th over and played with the confidence of a man coming off his match-winning 84 not out in Tuesday’s semi-final against South Africa.

He put on 111 with Ross Taylor (40 off 72) and they had New Zealand nicely poised entering the second power play at 3-150 off 35 overs.

A crippling collapse of 7-33 began with a double-wicket maiden from allrounder James Faulkner, who had Taylor brilliantly caught by Brad Haddin and then clean bowled Corey Anderson.

Luke Ronchi and the tail offered little resistance, unable to handle left-arm seamers Starc (2-20), Mitchell Johnson (3-30) and Faulkner (3-36).

Boult, who opened with the support of four slips, forced a return catch from scoreless opener Aaron Finch to give him 22 scalps for the tournament – level with Starc as the most prolific bowler.

Warner responded with aggression but when he fell, New Zealand probably sensed soon afterwards that it wasn’t going to be their day.

A delivery from Matt Henry (2-46) to Steve Smith squirted back and hit middle stump but the bails stayed put.