Under a cloudless blue sky, Australia continued their victorious World Cupprogress with a seven-wicket victory against Zimbabwe

John Ward24-Feb-2003Under a cloudless blue sky, Australia continued their victorious World Cupprogress with a seven-wicket victory against Zimbabwe. It was a harderfight than many expected, as they had only 15 balls in hand at the end.It was fortunate for Australia that the match was played at Queens SportsClub in Bulawayo rather than at Harare, where prolonged rain would probablyhave resulted in the match being abandoned.Zimbabwe won the toss and decided to bat. The pitch in Bulawayo isinvariably rather slow and lifeless for pace bowlers, even in the earlymorning. They made one change, replacing opener Mark Vermeulen with DougMarillier, the man whom Australia will well remember for almost snatching amatch from their grasp in Perth two years ago with his famous `shovel’ shot.Australia reverted to their strongest team, taking no chances.Zimbabwe made a rather nervous start to their innings, with Guy Whittallpromoted again to open with Craig Wishart. No doubt there were unvoiced regrets about the absence from the squad of the experienced Alistair Campbell.There were a couple of nervy singles before Wishart hit Glenn McGrath through the covers for the first boundary. Immediately, though, Whittall tried topull Gillespie and skied a catch to square leg.This brought in Andy Flower, whose presence seemed to give Wishartconfidence, and runs came more freely. Flower looked much more himself thanhe had done against India, and hit Gillespie for two classical off-side foursoff successive deliveries. Perhaps the altitude prevented the Australiansfrom bowling with their usual consistent pinpoint accuracy, although itcould never be said that they bowled poorly.The pull shot again proved fatal for Zimbabwe when Wishart attemptedthe shot against Gillespie and dragged the ball on to his stumps via thebottom edge; Zimbabwe were 28 for two.Australia’s bowlers tightened up and the Flower brothers were forced tostruggle for runs, which came at scarcely three an over; their fiftypartnership came up off 94 balls. On 41 Andy survived an edge off Brett Lee to a vacant first slip position, but ‘keeper Adam Gilchrist was unable to reach thechance.Andy finally reached his fifty off 77 balls, and then the team 100 came upoff 26.5 overs. Grant appeared almost anonymous in partnership with hisbrother, but he did play a magnificent straight drive for four past Lee. Hehad reached 37 and was just beginning to look more fluent when he was runout. It was Andy’s call for a quick but safe two, but Grant at firstrefused the second run and then came too late. Zimbabwe were 112 for threein the 30th over.Andy went on to 62 off 94 balls before he lay back to drive a ball from BradHogg that hurried through and hit his off stump. The innings then lookedin danger of grinding to a complete halt. Dion Ebrahim on 4 should havebeen run out and had given up, stranded in mid-pitch, but bowler DamianMartyn unaccountably flicked the ball at the stumps from two yards andmissed.The reprieve seemed to persuade Ebrahim temporarily to be more aggressive,but he only scored 15 before he swept at Hogg and was bowled behind hislegs. Marillier fell first ball, sweeping Hogg straight to midwicket,and Zimbabwe had subsided at 142 for five after 37 overs.Andy Blignaut was Zimbabwe’s last hope of a reasonable total, and he obligedwith some powerful pulls and drives, including 18 (one to Tatenda Taibu) offan over from Gillespie. Hogg went for six, four and six off successiveballs, and he reached 50 off just 25 balls, second only for Zimbabwe toMarillier’s match-winning fifty off 21 balls against India last season.Blignaut fell for 54, scored off 28 balls, hammering back a full tossstraight to Lee. He hit 2 sixes and 8 fours, and in the 45th over theZimbabwe score had shot up to 208 for six. Taibu and Heath Streak took upthe assault with a little less power, although Streak hit Lee for a big sixover long-off. McGrath bowled Taibu (23) and Murphy (1) in the final over,while Streak finished unbeaten with 28.Zimbabwe’s 246 for nine was the highest total against Australia so far thistournament. Hogg with three for 46 was the most successful bowler.Suicide pilot Adam Gilchrist launched Australia’s reply in typical fashion,hammering Streak straight for a mistimed but effective boundary. In thesecond over, by which time he had 13, he sliced a difficult chance tothirdman off Blignaut, but it went down.Gilchrist took most of the strike and had 23 before Matthew Hayden too got off the mark in typical fashion, driving Blignaut straight for four. The fiftypartnership took 49 balls, with Gilchrist scoring 39 of them. Taibu,standing up to Douglas Hondo, believed he had caught Gilchrist at the samescore, but umpire Bowden rejected the confident appeal.At this stage Gilchrist seemed to run out of adrenaline and went through aquiet period before reaching his fifty off 45 balls. He was immediatelydropped by Marillier, a hard return catch, but Hayden was lessfortunate: flicking Hondo down the leg side, he was superbly caught low doneat fine leg by Grant Flower. Australia were 89 for one.Gilchrist finally hit Marillier straight to deep midwicket to make Australia 113for two in the 22nd over. It was strange how becalmed he became afterracing to 39, but he had put the Australian innings well on course.Ricky Ponting and Martyn put on 53 together by unspectacular methodsbefore Ponting drove a straight-forward return catch to Brian Murphy.Darren Lehmann came in, but Zimbabwe were now able to put Australia under acertain degree of pressure as the runs still did not flow.Marillier, taking over the role of Grant Flower who hurt his spinning fingeragainst India, did the job to perfection, bowling his ten overs for just 32runs and the wicket of Gilchrist.Streak rang his bowling changes to try to break the partnership of Martynand Lehmann, who elected to follow the cool, calm and assured route home.Lehmann hardly seemed to break sweat as he cruised to his fifty before theclose off just 43 balls, quickly followed by Martyn off 69 balls. A pull byLehmann that almost carried for six over long leg finished the match.Lehmann finished on 56 and Martyn on 50.