Zimbabwe Triangular series: Elton Chigumbura and Prosper Utseya stun Australia with a 3-wicket victory

Elton Chigumbura

Zimbabwe pulled off a massive upset by chasing down the 210-run target set by Australia with 3 wickets to spare in the fourth One Day International of the triangular series involving South Africa, at Harare. It is only their second ODI win against Australia and first after 31 years.

Opting to bat first, Australia were restricted to just 209/9, courtesy of a disciplined bowling effort from the home team, with all the bowlers except Tendai Chatara being amongst the wickets. The African nation, in reply, got off to a steady start before losing both the openers Sikandar Raza and Tino Mawoyo to off-spinner Nathan Lyon in quick successions, to leave them in a spot of bother with the score at 44/2 in 13.3 overs.

Taylor, however, scored a quick-fire 32 off 26, getting the team past the three-figure mark. Australia struck, again, this time with three blows, including that of Taylor to leave the hosts reeling at 106/5 and in an all familiar territory, staring at an inevitable defeat. All-rounder Elton Chigumbura and spinner Prosper Utseya, though, had other ideas, as they put together an unbeaten 55-run partnership for the 8th wicket off just 9.4 overs despite the fall of Sean Williams and Donald Tiripano, to seal the game with a surprising ease in 48 overs.

Utseya (30* off 28) finished the match off in some style – with a huge six of Mitchell Starc – as Chigumbura remained not out on 52 off 68 balls at the other end.

Earlier in the day, only Michael Clarke and Brad Haddin were able to make telling contributions, 68* and 49 respectively, for Australia as they scraped past 200 with the help of a cameo from pacer Ben Cutting, who made a 22-ball 26. Rest of the batsmen failed to get past the 20-run mark.

South Africa are now at the top of the table with 2 wins from 2 matches, while Australia and Zimbabwe are at 2nd and 3rd spots respectively with 1 win each and only Net Run Rate separating them. 3 more league matches are to be played before the finals on September 6 at Harare.

Post-match presentation ceremony

Speaking at the post-match presentation ceremony, Man-of-the-Match Chigumbura said: “"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."

Clarke, on the other hand, regretted the lack of runs on the board: “Definitely not enough runs. But credit to Zimbabwe. They bowled well and batted well. We lost the match during our innings. And Zimbabwe showed us how to play spin. We have to make sure we are switched on for our next match against South Africa."

Scores in brief: Australia – 209/9 (50 overs) lost to Zimbabwe 211/7 (48 overs)