Zimbabwe down Aussies in first upset

A Blessing for Zimbabwe as Muzarabani is congratulated by team-mates

By M. Shamil Amit

Zimbabwe scored an upset win over Australia in their group stage match of the Men’s T20 Cricket World Cup at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo yesterday.

Australia middle order batter Matt Renshaw produced a fighting innings of 65 chasing a 170 target but Zimbabwe were able to pull off a well-deserved win by 23 runs.

It was left to fast bowlers Blessing Muzarabani and Brad Evans who together accounted for seven wickets that made Australia struggle for their runs. The duo combined and did the early damage as they had the Australia batting in tatters at 29 for 4 within the space of the first five overs.

Renshaw who remained unbeaten on 65 off 44 balls with five boundaries and a six began a recovery act with Glenn Maxwell (31) but with the fall of Maxwell ended a 77-run stand for the fifth wicket.

Australia at that stage were 106 for 5 in the 15th over and were left with the daunting task of scoring the remaining 64 runs off 34 balls.

Renshaw was unfortunate as he had to watch losing his partners at the other end. The in-coming batsmen were unable to make any impression as the Zimbabwe bowlers were on top building up pressure with the Aussie batting struggling for survival.

Zimbabwe succeeded in restricting the Aussies for a score of 146 runs to chalk up their second successive win. Travis Head (17), Cameron Green (0), Tim David (0) and Marcus Stoinis (6) were all out cheaply. Zimbabawe put in a superlative display of batting after being invited to take first lease of the wicket with openers Brian Bennett and Tadiwanashe Marumani leading the way. The pair had very little threat from the bowlers as they succeeded to post Zimbabwe’s 50 in 38 balls.

Marcus Stoinis made the breakthrough with the wicket of Marumani who hit a breezy 35 in 21 balls that included seven boundaries after associating in a stand of 61 runs off 45 balls. Bennett joined by Ryan Burl further frustrated the bowlers as the pair brought up Zimbabwe’s 100 in 74 balls and a 50 runs stand in 35 balls for the second wicket.

With Zimbabwe on 131 for 2 in the 16th over Bennett who remained unbeaten on 64 made in 54 balls with seven boundaries denied Australia any more wickets as he and Sikandar Raza produced 38 vital runs together to end at 169 for 2.

Scores

Zimbabwe 169 for 2 in 20 overs 
(Tadiwanashe Marumani 35, Ryan Burl 35, Brian Bennett 65 n.o., Sikander Raza 25 n.o.)

Australia 146 in 19.3 overs
(Glenn Maxwell 31, Matt Renshaw 65 n.o.: Blessing Muzarabani 4/17, Brad Evans 3/23)