The India-Australia ODI, Perth, 2004 was another match in the VB Series that was played between the teams of India, Australia and Zimbabwe. It was the fourth encounter between India and Australia in the series and the Indian team was playing in the match after losing the first encounter, winning the second and again losing the third encounter against Australia. The match was just a formality as far as the tournament statistics were concerned, as both the teams had already been qualified for the Finals. However, it was also a prestige match for India, as the team was looking to level the score 2-2 in the four ODI matches, it played with Australia till then in the series. The Indian team, playing under the captaincy of Saurav Ganguly was also eager to give a good performance in the match that would boost up their confidence before the Finals. However, India eventually lost the match by 5 wickets to Australia, due to an all-round poor performance of the Indian players.

The Indian captain, Saurav Ganguly won the toss and decided to bat first in the match. However, the decision did not prove to be a right one, as India lost their first four wickets within the score of only 57 runs. The top class batsmen like Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Virender Sehwag and Saurav Ganguly were already back in the pavilion and India was in a big trouble at that point of time. The Australian bowlers were bowling with utter brilliance in the match and they soon reduced the Indian innings to 129-7 in the 32nd over. Only, Yuvraj Singh was showing some resistance in front of the Aussie bowlers and he played an innings of 47 runs, before getting out as the eighth batsman for India. The Indian team eventually scored 203 runs from 49 overs, thanks to two timely small but effective partnerships from the lower order batsmen.

The Australia team also failed to get a good start in their innings, while chasing an easily obtainable target of only 2024 runs. The Indian opening bowlers showed good discipline and bowled nicely to get the first three Aussie wickets for only 37 runs. Ajit Agarkar did most of the damage to the Australian top order by taking two wickets. However, the Australian team soon came back into the match, as the opener, Adam Gilchrist and all rounder Andrew Symonds made a wonderful partnership for the fourth wicket. Both the players played wonderfully and they together put on 122 runs in the partnership. Gilchrist scored 75 runs from 65 balls and Symonds scored 73 runs from 57 balls to out their team on a strong position in the match. Though, Irfan Pathan did a wonderful job to send both Gilchrist and Symonds back to the pavilion within a short span, however it was not enough for India to win the match. The two experienced Australian batsmen, Simon Katich and Michael Hussey played sensibly and made an unbeaten partnership of 39 runs to sail the team to the victory land. Australia reached the target of 204 runs quite comfortably in the 32nd over and thus clinched a victory of 5 wickets over India, in the match.