7TH MATCH -- ZIMBABWE v AUSTRALIA

Zimbabwe returned to the fast pitch at Hobart for a second match, again against a team with a strong pace attack. Australia at this stage of the tournament were struggling after several unexpected defeats, and were determined to make no mistake against Zimbabwe. Kevin Arnott was considered fit again for Zimbabwe after breaking a finger against the West Indians but was played in the middle order to protect his hands. He remembers fielding on the boundary and taking much ridicule from the crowd about Arnott's Biscuits.

This match, unlike others in Australia, was played in weather more akin to England or New Zealand. The weather was cloudy and overcast, persuading Zimbabwe to put Australia in and gambling that rain would not interfere with the match. The pitch was not as fast as for the Pakistan match, but stil had more bounce than the Zimbabweans were used to. As it was, rain did interrupt play after 15 overs. The score was then 58 for one and the match was reduced to 46 overs per side. The wicket to fall was Tom Moody, who played the ball out on the leg side and got into a hopeless muddle with David Boon over a quick run, while Dave Houghton threw the ball to the keeper.

On such a pitch, although after rain not quite as fast as in the previous match, the Zimbabwean medium-fast bowling was meat and drink to the Australian batsmen. Apart from Moody, all the batsmen cashed in to some extent, with Allan Border's 22 being his highest score of a person-ally disastrous tournament. He was fortuitously stumped when the ball bounced off the wicket-keeper's gloves on to the stumps, the sort of dismissal that always seems to happen to batsmen out of form and luck. The bowlers did manage to get more movement off the seam this time, but the batsmen still scored at an impressive rate, especially the Waugh twins. Only the immaculate bowling of Traicos kept a check on the scoring rate.

David Boon and Dean Jones laid the foundation with a second-wicket partnership of 84, but the highlight of the innings was the dazzling partnership between the Waugh twins, who added 113 together in 48 minutes off 69 balls. Kevin Duers remembers bowling to them and finding their batting unbelievable; when he bowled yorkers, they would simply step back on their stumps and flick them to the boundary. They reached their fifties off consecutive balls, but Steve had offered two chances, the first before scoring. Earlier David Boon had been dropped on 8, so it was not one of the Zimbabweans' better displays of fielding. A target of 266 was not likely, but something more attainable might have been possible were those catches held.

Similarly the Zimbabwean batsmen struggled against the Australian pace attack in these conditions, the extra bounce especially troubling them. Their opening pair battled to score at three runs an over, frequently playing and missing, thanks to accurate bowling from Craig McDermott, Bruce Reid and Mike Whitney, and the target quickly became more unlikely than ever. Ali Shah was run out attempting an unlikely second run to Bruce Reid at third man, but he was to finish as equal-top scorer as the middle order collapsed in a rather poor batting display. Only an aggressive 23 by Eddo Brandes enlivened the end of the match, as he finished equal top scorer, following on from his top score against South Africa.

Iain Butchart remembers an incident when Mike Whitney, who paid several visits to Zimbabwe with Young Australian and New South Wales teams, was bowling to Andy Waller. Waller tried to pull him, but with the extra pace of the pitch he hit the ball on the splice and it merely rolled back down the pitch to the bowler. Whitney, quite a character, picked it up and shook his head in mock reproof, saying, 'No, no, no, 'Bundu', you're not at Harare Sports Club, you're in Australia! Don't play that shot!' Whitney had a fine match and conceded only 15 runs in his 10 overs, to this day (April 1999) the second most economical 10-over stint delivered against Zimbabwe in one-day cricket.

This was the match where Eddo Brandes first gained fame as a chicken farmer. Malcolm Jarvis was not playing in the match due to injury, and was invited into the television commentators' box to help identify the players, which he found a wonderful experience. Tony Greig soon asked him to identify a player, so he named Brandes and went on to add that he was a chicken farmer, to give some extra information. Greig latched on to this, and some of the commentators thought it most amusing that this should be the occupation of Zimbabwe's opening bowler. So Brandes' reputation was made! Jarvis greatly appreciated being in the box with so many famous names, but did feel that the commentators tended to be rather condescending towards the Zimbabwean players.

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