Zimbabwe fold after Marsh, Maxwell blitz

A blistering 109-run stand in nine overs between Mitchell Marsh and Glenn Maxwell saw Australia rack up the highest ODI total at the Harare Sports Club and leave Zimbabwe in the dust in the tri-series opener. Both Marsh, promoted to No.3 in Michael Clarke’s injury-enforced absence, and Maxwell recorded their highest scores in the format as Australia stacked on 147 runs in their last ten overs. Zimbabwe’s best batsman, Hamilton Masakadza, managed less than half of that.

On a late winter surface, neither team’s bowlers were able to extract much from the pitch but Zimbabwe’s attack was rendered particularly toothless in the face of Australia’s aggression. The usually miserly Tinashe Panyangara and Tendai Chatara were torn apart while John Nyumbu was swept and sliced all over the ground. In contrast Australia’s frontline seamers were disciplined and their premier spinner, Nathan Lyon, found turn against a much meeker line-up that never looked likely to chase at seven runs to the over.

Summarized Scores: Australia 350 for 6 (Maxwell 93, Marsh 89) beat Zimbabwe 152 (Masakadza 70, Smith 3-16) by 198 runs