Australia routed Zimbabwe by 99 runs in the second One-day International of the VB Tri-nation series at the Syndey Cricket Ground on Sunday.
Brad Williams claimed a career-best 5 for 22 to put paid Zimbabwe's hopes of upsetting the World champions.
Australian Innings
Zimbabwe skipper Heath Streak set the standard from the first over. He bowled within the stumps, giving Australian openers Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist no room to work with. His first five overs yielded only six runs.
Douglas Hondo, at the other end, failed to back-up his skipper and conceded as many as 24 runs in his first three overs, with Gilchrist hitting some brilliant shots.
The Aussies, though, seemed to take the match rather easily. Complacency seemed to have set in. Hayden, in particular, looked off-colour. Streak kept the big man quiet and frustrated him. In the 11th over of the innings, the Zimbabwean's good work got just reward. A good length delivery pitched outside the off-stump and seemed to be continuing on the same path, but Hayden (14) tried to play a booming drive through the covers and got an inside edge on to the stumps. (42-1)
Australia reached 60 at the end of the 15-over mark but never looked at ease. Ricky Ponting, who was in at the fall of Hayden's wicket, hit some astonishing cross-batted shots during his innings of 21, but played an awful shot off a wide delivery from Andy Blignaut and was caught by the sweeper on the cover boundary. (73-2)
Gilchrist (34 off 44 balls) was gone soon after and the Australians seemed to be in trouble. Their top three batsmen were back in the pavilion and the Zimbabwe bowlers were making life difficult on a wicket that was not very good for stroke play.
Damien Martyn (21) and Andrew Symonds added 35 for the fourth wicket. Martyn started off with a smashing square cut and looked in very good touch but was deceived by a flighted delivery from Grant Flower.
The two left-arm spinners -- Raymond Price and Flower -- were bowled in tandem from the 24th over and they did a brilliant job.
Price did not concede a single boundary in his 10-over spell, 30 singles and a couple of twos making up the numbers. At the other end, Flower claimed another wicket, the crucial one of Bevan (3), caught and bowled.
Michael Clarke and Bevan, Australia's saviours in the game against India, got into the act again. A 66-run partnership helped the Aussies inch their way towards a fighting total. But the spinners were miserly. For a 20-over period, between the 22nd and the 42nd over, the Aussies failed to find the boundary.
Both lost their wickets trying to accelerate in last ten overs. Symonds (42) tried to pull a short delivery from outside the off stump and top-edged it as a result. Hondo, in the covers, made no mistake to give Sean Ervine the first of his three wickets. (184-6)
Ervine struck again to remove Clarke (40) and suddenly the Aussies looked like they would be well short of the 220 mark.
But a good 30-run partnership between Ian Harvey (22 off 17 balls) and Andy Bichel (11 not out) helped them reach 225 at the end of the 50 overs.
Zimbabwe bowled splendidly in the last few overs to set the match up for a very interesting second innings.
Zimbabwe innings
The Zimbabwe innings was wrecked by Brad Williams in the first ten overs and from that point on the visitors were only trying to avoid an embarrassing defeat.
Williams hit the deck hard, pushed the batsmen on the back foot and caught them playing neither back nor forward. Staurt Carlisle (1), Mark Vermeulen (5), Grant Flower (0), Matsikenyeri (0) all went in a similar manner, sticking to the crease and not moving their feet.
It was a hostile spell from Williams and Jason Gillespie, at the other end, claimed the wicket of Sibanda (7) to reduce Zimbabwe to 17 for 5 in the eighth over of the innings.
Heath Streak and Tatendra Taibu tried to salvage some pride with a 73-run partnership but the runs never came at a good enough rate to trouble the Aussies, who were always in command.
Ponting has never lost a game at home since being appointed captain of the ODI side and that record was never threatened. But then Symonds came on to put an end to Taibu's fighting knock of 31, which included three fours. (90-6)
And the slide started again. Ervine hit a few lusty blows but too many runs were needed and cameos were not the need of the hour. After driving Symonds straight for a boundary, Ervine (14 off 17 balls) tried to repeat the act but the off-spinner held the ball back and foxed the batsman in the flight.
Streak, 46 off 92 balls, including 3 fours, was the next to go, stumped by Gilchrist off Clarke.
Brad Williams came back to finish the Zimbabwean innings by claiming his fifth wicket. His 5 for 22 also earned him the man-of-the-match award. Australia also claimed the bonus point. They now head the points table with 11 points from two matches. India are second in the standings with one point.
The Australians were too powerful for a Zimbabwe outfit that fought well while fielding but had little class in the batting. A point to be noted: the ball does seem to move a lot more under lights Down Under. Australia won the toss in both matches so far and put their opponents in to bat. It remains to be seen how big a factor this will be during the series.