Highlights
- Australia won the series by 2-1
- This is Zimbabwe's first win in last 5 games
- Australia will now play white ball games against India and New Zealand before the T20I World Cup
AUS vs ZIM: In a sudden change of events, Zimbabwe upset the Aussies in the third and final One Day International match of the series. The Aaron Finch-led Australian side walked into this match with an unassailable lead of 2-0 and were expected to win the last match. Before this, the KL Rahul-led team India toured Zimbabwe and defeated them by a margin of 3-0.
The skipper of Zimbabwe, Regis Chakabva, who is not having a captaincy run so far won the toss and invited Australia to bat first. Warner opened alongside Aaron Finch who is recently going through a bad patch. Like always, Finch couldn't get going and he departed on 5 runs after facing 11 deliveries. This left David Warner stranded on the other end who carried on and tried his very best to pull Australia out of troubled waters. The left-handed batter scored a sublime 94 off 96 deliveries and missed out on his well-deserved ton. With a strike rate of 97.92, Warner hit 14 boundaries and 2 sixes.
Surprisingly for Australia, no other Aussie batsman could cross the 20-run mark which includes their stalwart Steven Smith who is eyeing a return to the Australian white-ball setup. Carey scored 4 off 9 deliveries, Stoinis scored 3 off 15 deliveries and Cameron Green too fell prey to Sean Williams on 3 after facing 11 deliveries. Australia bundled out for a meager 141 runs.
When Zimbabwe walked out to bat, they were expected to chase it down very easily. On the other hand, Australia only had one way, to take all the 10 wickets. Takudzwanashe Kaitano was dismissed on 19 by Hazlewood but Tadiwanashe Marumani kept on going and he finished on 35 off 47 deliveries. Australia's star bowler Josh Hazlewood clinched 3 important wickets which left them reeling for 115/6. Skipper Regis Chakabva remained patient till the end and guided his side to a 3-wicket victory over Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe XI: Takudzwanashe Kaitano, Tadiwanashe Marumani, Wesley Madhevere, Sean Williams, Sikandar Raza, Regis Chakabva(w/c), Ryan Burl, Tony Munyonga, Brad Evans, Richard Ngarava, Victor Nyauchi
Australia XI: Aaron Finch(c), David Warner, Steven Smith, Alex Carey(w), Marcus Stoinis, Glenn Maxwell, Cameron Green, Ashton Agar, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood
