Zimbabwe beat mighty Australia The Zimbabwe players take a victory lap around the ground. - (AP Photo)
The Zimbabwe players take a victory lap around the ground. - (AP Photo)

The Zimbabwe players take a victory lap around the ground. – (AP Photo)

Paul Munyuki Harare Bureau
ELTON Chigumbura played a marvel of a captain’s innings yesterday and was well supported by Prosper Utseya to lead Zimbabwe to their first one day international cricket win over Australia in 31 years at Harare Sports Club.
A three wicket win that came with 12 balls to spare was arguably the best and biggest ODI win that has happened to Zimbabwe in more than a decade  as this marked only Zimbabwe’s second ODI win over Australia since the 1983 World Cup.

Winning the toss and electing to bat first, the world’s number one ODI side were restricted to 209-9 – their lowest total ever against Zimbabwe –  in their allotted overs but Zimbabwe were up for the challenge in what was a true David and Goliath case.

Zimbabwe needing four runs to win and with Utseya on the strikers end, Mitchell Starc’s delivery was sent over mid wicket for the hosts only second six in this game to spark wild celebrations for the Zimbabwe faithful. It took Zimbabwe 11,406 days before they could get the better of Australia in this format of the game and none of the Zimbabwe players were born the last time Zimbabwe had beaten Australia.

Zimbabwe’s show did not start in the afternoon’s session as the bowlers had layed a good foundation in the morning, the spinner giving a lot of problem to the Australia attack, not allowing them to settle at all.

Utseya, Sean Williams and Donald Tiripano each took two wickets apiece while John Nyumbu and Malcolm Waller each came in with a handy wicket forcing Australia to set a low target of 210 for Zimbabwe.

At some point Australia lost five wickets for 97 runs – the fewest runs the tourists have lost five wickets against Zimbabwe in an ODI and before this they had lost four wickets for 57 runs, again the fewest runs for which they have lost four wickets against Zimbabwe in an ODI.  But it was not all smooth sailing for Zimbabwe, the fielding was not all they wanted as the good spin attack was not well supported by the fielding, the hosts dropping five catches during the Australian innings, one of them being Brad Haddin who Sean Williams let go on four.

And he went on to punish Zimbabwe for this mistake as he was one of the Australian top scorers, coming in with 49 off 66 deliveries that included two fours and three sixes. The best they had was captain Michael Clarke who was unbeaten on 68 after facing 102 deliveries with two fours.

And it was their sixth wicket partnership that breathed a bit of life into their side contributing 50 runs before the eighth wicket partnership of Ben Cutting (run out on 26) and Haddin added 51. This was when Clarke had retired hurt after his hamstring came back to nag him.

He was just making his first appearance in the triangular series as he had been sidelined by a hamstring injury he suffered just before the series got underway.

But this was before Zimbabwe showed the tourists what they are capable of doing with the bat as well, Chigumbura earning the man-of-the-match award for his good stand in front of the wickets.

“I had to be there till the end. The most important thing was to stay calm. The guys worked very hard for this and supporters were behind us throughout. Today we showed some improvement. We just have to keep working.

“Hopefully we will have another good game on Thursday. Prosper came in and said he wanted to be positive. That was good for me because I could try and stay there,” said the Zimbabwe captain.

Getting off to a slow start, Zimbabwe were 44 for the loss of two wickets, first Sikandar Raza (22 off 32) edged to Steve Smith who was in for injured Clarke off a Nathan Lyon delivery in the 11 over before Mawoyo (15 off 44) also fell to Lyon’s ball in his next over.

Soon after Zimbabwe hit the 100 run mark, Masakadza was the next to go, clean bowled by Mitchell Starc uprooting his off stump off a rather quicker delivery, Brendon Taylor followed in the next over Lyon getting his off stump as well.

Three more wickets in the form of Willams, Waller and Tiripano followed and by the time Utseya came in to partner Chigumbura for the eight wicket partnership Zimbabwe were 156 for after losing seven wickets.

Being the pick of the Australian attack, Lyon finished with figures of 4-44 in his 10 overs after getting the scalps of Raza, Mawoyo, Taylor and Williams but his efforts alone could not have helped much despite Starc’s two wickets.

And this was when the comeback fight started.
So calm was the partnership exhibiting wonderful knocks and good running between the wickets as they managed to withstand pressure from the Australian attack to get a win in the 30th ODI meeting between the two sides – in 31 years.

And for Utseya, this was one of his best innings with the bat, and he is loving every moment of it.
“A bit tired but I am loving the moment,” said Utseya.

“It was a big win for us and I told my captain that I was going to stay positive and look to score otherwise the pressure was going to get to me. We are going to celebrate tonight. Very pleasing to cross the line, we have worked really hard for this,” said the former captain.

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