Cricket Highlights, 28 Aug: AUS vs ZIM (1st ODI)

AUS vs ZIM (1st ODI) – Highlights

Australia and Zimbabwe met in the first of the three-match ODI series early this morning today, Bangladesh time. Despite being the underpowered side, batting first Zimbabwe put up a good target. But due to great bowling and batting, Australia won very easily, and Zimbabwe had to leave the field with a loss. Along with that, Australia also took a step towards winning the series. On the other hand, Cameron Green got the Man of the Match title for his outstanding bowling. Zimbabwe’s lineup collapsed because of his bowling.

After 18 years, Zimbabwe went to play the ODI series in Australia. However, their journey did not start well at all. The Aussies secured an important 10 World Cup Super League points with an easy 5-wicket win in the first match of the series at Townsville’s Tony Ireland Stadium.

In the match’s first innings, Zimbabwe, who batted first, were all out for 200 runs. Pace bowling all-rounder Cameron Green took 5 wickets in his career-best bowling performance. In reply, David Warner’s fifty helped to win the match by losing 5 wickets in 33.3 overs.

Zimbabwe had a promising start. Innocent Kaia got out first, but Wesley Madhevere, who dropped to number three, and another opener, Tadiwanashe Marumani, raised the possibility of good things. But in the end, nothing good happened.

Innocent Kaia was out for 17 runs after playing 40 balls. He also hit 2 fours. Marumani then leaves Wesley Madhavere alone. Marumani got out after playing a beautiful innings of 45 runs, hitting 4 fours in 61 balls. After that, no one could stay on the field long with Madhevere. Tony Munyonga left the field with 7 runs after playing 14 balls. Raja scored 5 runs in 24 balls.

After that, Madhavere left the field after playing the best innings of his career. He played beautiful innings of 72 runs off 91 balls before getting out, and his innings of 72 runs had 4 fours.

Later none of the batters could do much. Zimbabwe lost the last 6 wickets by just 15 runs. Although Captain Regis Chakabva was on the field for a while, he returned to the dressing room after scoring 31 runs from 33 balls. He also hit 3 fours. Ryan Burl (2), Luke Jongwe (3), Brad Evans (5), and Victor Nyauchi (2) all left the field one by one. In the end, they made a target of 201 runs with 11 extra runs.

For Australia, Cameron Green took 5 wickets for 33 runs, and leg-spinner Adam Zampa took 3 wickets for 57 runs. Besides, Mitchell Marsh and Mitchell Starc took 1 wicket each.

Two openers, Aaron Finch and David Warner added 43 runs to the opening pair to chase down the target of 201 runs given by Zimbabwe. Skipper Finch returned to the dressing room with 15 runs, and Warner got out with a partnership of 65 runs with Steve Smith. 57 runs from 66 balls came from his bat.

Alex Carey (10), Marcus Stoinis (19), and Mitchell Marsh (2) then disappointed the team. Australia lost 5 wickets for the team’s 155 runs. Glenn Maxwell’s 9-ball 32-run tornado innings ended the match quickly. Smith eventually remained unbeaten on 48 off 80 balls. In the end, with the help of 18 runs extra, they left the field with a victory. 

Ryan Burl took three wickets for Zimbabwe. Apart from this, Sikandar Raja and Richard Ngarava took 1 wicket each.

AUS vs ZIM Scoreboard  

Australia – 201/5 (33.3)

Zimbabwe – 200/10 (47.3)

Result – Australia won by 5 wickets 

Player of the match – Cameron Green

AUS vs ZIM Playing XIs