Australia wins yet again in CWC

19536 Mitchell-Johnson_434
19536 Mitchell-Johnson_434

Australia stretched its unbeaten run in ICC Cricket World Cups to one more match when it beat Zimbabwe by 91 runs on Monday at the Sardar Patel Gujarat Stadium, Motera in Ahmedabad.

Australia has now won 24 matches in a row in ICC Cricket World Cups.

In a Group A match, Australia batted first and posted 262 for 6 in its 50 overs and then bowled out Zimbabwe for 171 in 46.2 overs.

Australia got off to a slow but confident start with Shane Watson (79: 92b, 8x4, 1x6) and Brad Haddin putting on 61 for the first wicket in 18.5 overs. Thereafter, Australia gradually built its innings as Watson added crucial runs with the middle-order.

After Watson's departure, Michael Clarke (58: 55b, 4x4) remained unbeaten as he propelled Australia to a challenging total. For Zimbabwe, Ray Price (1-43), Prosper Utseya (1-43), Graeme Cremer (1-41) shared the wickets around. Chris Mpofu was the best bowler on view with 2-58.

In its reply, Zimbabwe lost wickets at regular intervals and only two partnerships of note was stitched together. Elton Chigumbura and Sean Williams added 44 runs for the fifth wicket. Later Prosper Utseya (24) and Graeme Cremer (37) shared 49 runs for the eighth wicket.

For Australia, pace bowlers Shaun Tait (2-34) and Mitchell Johnson (4-19) shared the wickets around. The other wicket-taker was off-spinner Jason Krejza (2-28).