The elegant Mandhana batted well during her 105 that came off 109 balls and until the left hander was present, the Indian side was in with a fighting chance.
But her dismissal at the right time ended India’s chances of at least getting a consolation win.
The main issue with the Indian innings was that the senior batsman failed to find adequate company from the other end to capitalize after Alana King broken a 118-run stand between rewrite and Harleen Deol (39 off 64).
In her stint in the middle, Mandhana got out on 14 occasions and scored a duck for the third-fiddle, with the team being revived by a high-octane Richa Ghosh.
Right-arm spin bowling all-rounder Gardner then bowled a brilliant spell and took five wickets for 30 runs after her terrific innings with the bat.
Other than Ghosh, captain Harmanpreet Kaur scored a dismal 12 in 22 balls while Jemimah Rodrigues managed to score open only 16 balls.
Even senior most all-rounder, Deepti Sharma, failed as she was dismissed for a duck.
Earlier, Australia was taken to a cocktail bowing by Indian’s new ball pacer Arundhati Reddy in the final match of what has appeared to be a one-sided series as the Australian cricket team has been thoroughly outclassed by the formidable Indian cricket team.
Sutherland took Australia through after Reddy blazed through with a dire four wickets in the space of limited-overs’ career-best figures.
Having already lost the series, India opted to bowl at the iconic WACA ground but did not get the required breakthroughs in the first powerplay with Phoebe Litchfield (25 off 33) and Georgia Voll (26 off 30) going strong.
Fifth ODI, changed the course of the game in one over by removing the openers in a space of four balls.
Unlike Renuka Thakur and Saima Thakor, Reddy got the ball to swing back from a fuller length which led to the fall of last match’s centurion Voll, who saw her stumps disturbed.
Left-handed Litchfield was caught behind chasing an away swinger and all the momentum gained by Australia was suddenly lost.
Next to depart was star all-rounder Elysse Perry who had no answer to a beauty from Reddy that held its line to hit the top of off-stump. When Beth Mooney departed, Australia were reduced to 78 for four from 58 for no loss.
Sutherland and Gardner then showed the enviable depth of the Australian batting by sharing a 96-run stand for the fifth wicket. Sutherland was the aggressor in the partnership and especially pounded the spinners, smashing two fours and a six off Deepti in the 40th over.
India’s catching left a lot to be desired as they grassed three tough chances.