Zimbabwe’s thrilling 23-run victory over Australia in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo today was truly special, for an interplay of several reasons.
Firstly, it evoked the memories of September 2007, when the Chevrons produced a brilliant display to stun the Aussies at the inaugural T20 World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa.
Elton Chigumbura and Brendan Taylor were the heroes with ball and bat respectively, with the former taking 3 wickets while the latter hit a well-played 60 of 45 deliveries.
That famous victory is widely remembered and treasured, because Australia were at the time, defending World Cup champions in the 50-over format of the game.
18 years later, the Chevrons stunned the Aussies again and did so in the most heroic and memorable fashion.
Opener Brian Bennet’s unbeaten 64 off 56 deliveries ensured that Zimbabwe set Australia a somewhat hard to defend target of 170, considering the 2021 champions made 182-6 against Ireland days ago.
The total posted by the Chevrons though, which also included Tadiwa Marumani’s brilliant knock of 35 of 21 balls, proved to be mammoth task for the Aussies.
Blessing Muzarabani and Bred Evans were clinical with ball in hand and got rid of Josh Inglis, Travis Head, Cameron Green and Tim David early on, leaving the Aussies in big trouble at 29-4.
The partnership of Glen Maxwell and Matthew Renshaw revived the Aussies’ innings- posting a combined 77 runs a for the fifth wicket, but when the latter was dismissed for 65 with eight deliveries remaining, it was all over for Australia.
Muzarabani, who was named player of the match for the second game in succession, hit career best figures of 4-17.
