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12 Sep, 2007, Cape Town: In a first major upset, Zimbabwe stunned the mighty Australians by five wickets here in a Group B match of Twenty20 cricket World Cup at the Newlands Stadium on Wednesday. They reached the victory target of 139 runs with one ball to spare.
Ricky Ponting, the Australian captain, won the toss and elected to bat first. Zimbabwe cricket team bowled perfectly—not giving any chance to the tournament favorites to score.
Zimbabwe, with their brilliant fielding, restricted the one-day (50 overs) World Champion’s to a mere 138 runs for nine wickets. Australians had a pathetic start. Australian cricket team’s top three batsmen crumbled for just 19 runs.
Australian cricket team lost their first wicket of Matthew Hayden in the first over itself. Hayden was caught by Taylor off Chigumbura’s fourth delivery of first over at a score of 4 runs. Australia at that time had posted just 7 runs on the board.
Adam Gilchrist was the second Australian batsman to fall. Adam Gilchrist had scored 4 runs and was caught by Matskenyeri off Chigumbura second over. Everything was going in Zimbabwe’s favor. They soon got the prized wicket of Australian captain Ricky Ponting, at a personnel score of 8 runs from 15 balls; when Australian team had scored mere 19 runs.
For Australian cricket team, it was Brad Hodge and Andrew Symonds who chipped in to give Australian some respectable score to defend. Brad Hodge, who remained unbeaten, was the top scorer with 35 runs for the Aussies followed by Andrew Symonds with 33 runs.
However, Zimbabwe; unlike the Aussies, had a dream start. Taylor, the Zimbabwe opener, made a swashbuckling 60 not out from 45 balls. The other opener, V. Sibanda, also made a significant contribution for his team’s cause by adding 23 runs before giving a catch to Adam Gilchrist, wicketkeeper, off Bracken delivery.
The second wicket of Zimbabwe fell at 54 runs; C.J. Chibhabha was the man to be dismissed off Clark’s delivery. The third wicket of Zimbabwe, of Taibu, too fell quickly at score of 55. He gave catch to the wicketkeeper off Johnson delivery.
H Masakadza, was the another batsman, who significantly contributed with a knock of 27 runs from 28 balls. He was later signaled out (LBW) in the 18 over trying to sweep Bret Lee’s delivery.
Zimbabwe cricket team, who in the beginning had a great start, faced a tense moment in the last over of the match. They went into the last over with 127 for five wickets requiring 12 runs from the last over.
Bracken was given the ball to bowl the decisive last over for Australia. For Zimbabwe, it was Taylor, their opener and top scorer, at the strike. Taylor angled the first ball for four run and in second took a single. Chigumbura, then made three runs off the next two deliveries and gave the strike to Taylor in the fifth delivery of last over—requiring four runs from the last two deliveries.
Tension was mounting on both teams—Australia to save embarrassing defeat and for Zimbabwe to defeat Aussies and to give a new lease of life to Zimbabwe cricket that was mired due to anti-white policies of Zimbabwean government.
And to the delight of millions of Zimbabwean fans, Zimbabwe got four runs as leg bye off the fifth delivery of the last over; with that they won the thrilling match.
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