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Ponting leads Aussies to victory

Wednesday, May 26 2004

Australian captain Ricky Ponting scored a fluent 91 to take his side to a comfortable seven-wicket win over Zimbabwe in the first One-Day at Harare.

However, Zimbabwe did salvage some pride, by lasting their quota of 50 overs against a strong Australian bowling line-up, while batting first. Leading the fight against the Aussie pace-men were opener Brendan Taylor and captain Tatenda Taibu, both of whom ended up scoring half centuries.

Glenn McGrath returned to International Cricket after a break of almost a year, because of an ankle injury. But it was his new ball partner Jason Gillespie who stole the spotlight by bowling one of his finest spells. McGrath evidently looked out of sorts, not able to come up with a perfect run-up. He still finished his 10 overs picking up one wicket.

Because of Gillespie's impeccable line and length Zimbabwe managed only 27 runs off the first 15 overs. They were then reduced to 64/3 around half the innings mark, but the 61-run partnership between Taylor and Taibu rescued them. Taylor, who has been earlier dropped twice by Michael Clarke reached his second One-Day fifty. Taibu's fifty signalled a welcome return to form, after missing out against the Sri Lankans earlier in the season.

Australia's 5th bowler compostion pair of Andrew Symonds and Darren Lehmann were the ones guilty of letting Zimbabwe get away from the difficult position they found themselves in. Brad Williams too struggled with a bad back, as Zimbabwe made the most of some medicore bowling. As a result, Zimbabwe were in sights of a score around 225-230. But a few late wickets meant they had to be content with 205/9.

Gillespie and Michael Kasprowicz were the pick of the bowlers, taking two wickets each.

Australia's chase didn't get off to a firing start. Matthew Hayden fell second over to Tinanshe Panyangara for a duck. Adam Gilchrist and Ponting batting aggresively for a while notching up a 50-run partnership before Adam Gilchrist fell.

Ponting and Damien Martyn from then on shared a stand of 144 runs, to take Australia home easily. Ponting, however didn't see through to the finish, falling short of a century, with 91 runs, which included three sixes. Martyn made a steady 74* to take the Aussies home with 10.2 overs to spare.

Score Summary:

Zimbabwe: 205/9 in 50 overs (B R M Taylor 59, T Taibu 57, J N Gillespie 21/2, M S Kasprowicz 26/2)

Australia: 207/3 in 39.4 overs (R T Ponting 91, D R Martyn 74*, T Panyangara 48/2)

Man of the Match: R T Ponting

Result: Australia won by 7 wickets, and lead the three-match series 1-0

Posted by Sudeep