Glenn Maxwell led Australia to a straightforward five-wicket victory against Zimbabwe in the first of three one-day internationals on Sunday at Townsville’s Riverway Stadium. Maxwell scored an unbeaten 32 from nine balls. With more than 16 overs remaining in their chase of 201, the Australians won the match and took a 1-0 series lead. The visitors fell from 185-4 to 200 all out, a score that was never going to be enough against a full-strength Australia. All-rounder Cameron Green took away the Zimbabwe tail with 5-33. The run chase for Australia was off to a good start with to captain Aaron Finch and David Warner, who scored at a rate of six runs per over until Finch played on to Richard Ngarava for 15 with the score at 43, extending his current slump.
Maxwell’s 32 helps Australia beat Zimbabwe by five wickets.
Steve Smith joined Warner, and the duo ran up a score of 78-1 when Warner was struck out by Sikandar Raza at the backward point. Before being bowled by Raza, the left-hander rode his luck to a score of 57, leaving Australia 108-2 in the 23rd over. Despite a hiccup in which Zimbabwe’s spinners Raza (1-45) and Ryan Burl (3-60) dismissed Alex Carey, Marcus Stoinis, and Mitchell Marsh, the calm Smith and savage Maxwell led his team to victory without more incident.
Smith reached the mark with 48 runs remaining off 80 balls while Maxwell smashed 32 off nine deliveries while facing three fours and three sixes, two of which came on the last two deliveries. Since Zimbabwe was playing their first series in Australia in 2004, Finch said that it had been challenging to play against unknown opponents.
When you arrive to the ground in the morning, you see a few acts to try to get a sense of what you could be facing in the center, he added. “You do your due diligence beforehand and study a lot of tapes,” he said. “I think we accomplished it extremely well, and our bowlers performed really well,” the author said.
Zimbabwe consistently scored runs throughout their innings, but only the opening batsmen Tadiwanashe Marumani (45), and Wessly Madhevere (72), were able to stop the Australian attack. The early damage was done by leg-spinner Adam Zampa, who claimed three of the first five wickets to fall as Zimbabwe reached 185-5.
To set a difficult goal, the visitors would have needed to at least score 240. However, the tail had no answer for the towering Green’s speed, and they lost their last six wickets for only 15 runs, being all out in the 48th over. Regis Chakabva, the captain of Zimbabwe, acknowledged that his team’s batting fell short. “We simply didn’t have enough runs on the board,” he added. “I believed that the wicket was a little bit tough early on and I think the players did well to soak up the pressure.”
Brief Scores:
200 all out in 47.3 overs for Zimbabwe (W Madhevere 72, T Marumani 45, R Chakabva 31; Cameron Green 5-33, A Zampa 3-57) vs. Australia, 33.3 overs, 201-5 (D Warner 57, S Smith 48 not out, G Maxwell 32 not out; Ryan Burl 3-60)
