4TH MATCH -- ZIMBABWE v AUSTRALIA

In the pre-match practice to this match, it became quite evident to the Zimbabweans how lacking the Australian team was in unity and spirit. The Western Australians Lillee and Marsh in particular were totally without respect for their captain Kim Hughes, who had a nightmare trying to control them.

As always, the teams had a net on the eve of the match. Three nets had been prepared for the use of the two teams, and the surfaces were of such indifferent quality that the Zimbabweans wanted their pace bowlers to come in off shorter runs so as to lessen the chances of injury. The Australians arrived first, in different cars having travelled separately, so they used two of the nets while the Zimbabweans had the third, and then as the Australians began to finish they left one of their nets to the Zimbabweans.

Andy Pycroft says that one thing he will never forget is Hughes going in to bat, while Lillee, Hogg and Thomson took their full run-ups and bowled flat out to try to hit him. Hughes perhaps deliberately stirred them up by coming in without a helmet; they asked him, "Hey, skipper, where's your helmet?", to which he replied, "I don't need it." This was like a red rag to a bull, and the pace bowlers pitched virtually nothing in Hughes' half of the pitch while he attempted to hook them, and there was a lot of sarcasm and verbal abuse between them. In the bar during the evening, it was clear how the different factions kept well to themselves and ignored the others. Other Zimbabweans recall this incident clearly, including Robin Brown who was batting in the next net at that time.

Rod Marsh, however, disagrees that this was a significant factor. He states that, although he and the other former Packer players had no respect for Hughes as a captain due to his decisions on the field, they got on well enough off the field, and that this was not the reason for the incident at the nets; he remembers Lillee bouncing him frequently in the nets and says that this was not an uncommon practice among Australian players.

Sure that the Australians were in disarray, the Zimbabweans took heart and told themselves that they had beaten the Australians once and could do it again. And so they might have done, had things gone their way. At one stage they were well set for victory, only to have it snatched from them due to a dropped catch and some dubious umpiring decisions.

Australia batted first and were determined to get after the bowling from the start. Vince Hogg was particularly impressed by the left-hander Graeme Wood, who pounced on anything off line or length to maximum effect. He was lucky to be given not out for what the Zimbabweans believed was a catch to the keeper, very early in his innings, and some words were exchanged, but he survived and the 100 came up with only one wicket down.

The middle order, though, got themselves rather bogged down; at one stage, according to Pycroft, they had only just topped 200 with six overs left. Then Marsh, as soon as he came in, hit a skyer towards the midwicket boundary, only for the unfortunate Rawson to put it down. Marsh went on to hit a very quick unbeaten 35; if that catch had been held, the Australian total would have been considerably less -- as it would have been were Wood given out caught at the wicket. Dave Ellman-Brown thinks this miss made the crucial difference to the match, and Rod Marsh also admits his team was close to losing. Allan Border had played well for 43 before being yorked by Iain Butchart. The Zimbabwean bowlers had done a fine job, with Traicos especially as economical as ever. On a good batting pitch, the Australians themselves were afraid that they had not scored enough runs.

Robin Brown opened for Zimbabwe and, facing Lillee, several times steered the ball down to third man, a favourite stroke of his. Lillee decided he wanted two fielders posted there, a regular third man quite fine and a man squarer for the cut. Hughes refused, saying he would not set a field for a bad ball. Brown recalls how the two had a furious argument in the middle of the pitch, which ended with Hughes saying, "You're not having it; just don't bowl there!" The next ball Lillee bowled short and Brown cut it, timing it perfectly and the ball went for four, to the place where Lillee had wanted his square fielder. As Brown ran down the pitch, Lillee barged him angrily, and then proceeded to march down to where Hughes was fielding in the slips and have another furious argument with him. At the end of the over, he grabbed his hat from the umpire, said "Thanks" pointedly to Hughes and took himself off.

The early Zimbabwean batting failed, though, with two run-outs further hindering their cause, and the Australians thought they had the match sewn up when five wickets were down for 109. But then came a superb fightback and, with a fine 84 by Dave Houghton off only 65 balls, well supported by Kevin Curran, Zimbabwe looked remarkably poised for victory again at one stage, as they added 103 together for the sixth wicket. With eight overs to go and this sixth-wicket pair together, Zimbabwe needed only 61 more runs to win with Ken MacLeay and the second-string bowlers Allan Border and Trevor Chappell operating. Rod Marsh and several other Australians confessed to the Zimbabweans after this match that they were afraid they had lost it at this point.

Zimbabwe were keeping well up with the scoring rate, but Dave Houghton remembers Curran coming to him at this stage and saying he had decided he would walk across his stumps and try to flick Chappell through the leg-side field. Houghton told him there was no need for that as they were keeping up with the scoring rate, but Curran tried anyway, missed and was given out lbw.

Immediately Kim Hughes brought back Rodney Hogg, who dismissed Butchart and Rawson with consecutive balls. Both were trying to play forward, but Hogg's extra pace was through their defences before their front feet had left the crease properly. Houghton, unsettled, quickly followed. Four wickets had fallen for the addition of only one run and Zimbabwe were sunk. Many of the Zimbabweans felt unhappy about some of the lbw decisions against them, but Houghton thought they were probably in the main part fair. Brown remembers telling Tom Hogan after the match that the Zimbabweans were rather upset about that, and he replied, "Yes, I think we were lucky."

There was a large crowd at this game, probably the largest at any of Zimbabwe's matches; many of them were Australians and the ground was full. Most of the English spectators supported Zimbabwe, as the under-dogs, because the opposition was Australian, and because the Zimbabweans obviously enjoyed their game on the field more than their opponents. This time, for reasons perhaps not unconnected with the different result of the game, all the Australians met with the Zimbabweans after the match and they finally got to know each other rather better in good-humoured surroundings.

Zimbabwe were very disappointed at their failure to win this match. The next match, against India, was the one generally talked about as that which Zimbabwe should have won, but Pycroft and others maintains that they should have beaten Australia twice.

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