ZIMBABWE Under-19 national cricket suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of Australia losing by 225 runs in their penultimate group C World Cup match in Kimberly, South Africa on Friday.
Chasing 297 for victory, Zimbabwe’s innings folded in 23.2 overs as the Southern Africa nation was bowled out for 71, the only notable resistance coming from middle order batter Ronak Patel who top scored with 36 from 48 balls.
The only other batter to get to double figures is Brandon Sunguro, who scored 12 from 28 balls.
In pursuit of a mammoth target, Zimbabwe innings never got going, as they lost their first three wickets for three runs, Panashe Taruvinga, Ryan Kamwemba and Campbell Macmillan all dismissed for ducks.
Things got worse when opener Nathan Hlabangana was run out for eight from 26 balls and Zimbabwe were reeling at 11 for four after 7.1 overs.
Patel and Sunguro tried to bring some respectability to Zimbabwe’s total with a 40-run partnership for the fifth wicket before the latter became Aidan O’Connor’s first victim of the match in the 17th over.
Patel continued his measured aggression, sharing a 20-run partnership with his captain Matthew Schonken who was then dismissed by the pick of Australia bowlers, Harkirat Bajwa who took four wickets for 15 runs.
Zimbabwe never recovered after that, when Patel was bowled through the gate by O’Connor, the Junior Chevrons were staring one of their worst defeats at this level.
Six Zimbabwe batsmen were dismissed for ducks and if you take away Patel’s knock, the Zimbabwe’s batting card looks grim.
They only have a day to work out their batting issues before they face rivals Namibia on Saturday with the winner of that match joining Australia and Sri Lanka in the Super 6.
Earlier in the day Zimbabwe were asked to bowl by Australia on what looked like a good batting surface, Anesu Kamuriwo bowled a maiden over to get things started.
Kohl Eksteen could not find the same movement and control he got against Sri Lanka. Kamuriwo bowled seven overs on the trot, conceding just 15 runs but could not give his captain the desired breakthrough.
Sunguro broke the Australia opening stand of 91, dismissing the dangerous Harry Dixon eleven short of his hundred.
Sam Konstas and the Australian captain took the game further away from Zimbabwe with their knocks of 45 and 68 runs respectively.
Zimbabwe pegged things back after claiming the wickets of Australia’s first four batters and a score of over 300 that looked to be on the cards was not a distant memory.
However, Newman Nyamhuri’s final over went for 20 runs, to give Australia the late flourish they needed. Sunguro was the pick of Zimbabwe bowlers with two wickets for 48 runs in his 10 overs.
