Australia down, Clarke out as Zimbabwe claim victory

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Cape Town

“YA,” Australia captain Michael Clarke barked at Brad Haddin between turning Donald Tiripano to square leg and chugging to the other end of the pitch for a single at Harare Sports Club on Sunday.

With that, Clarke reached 50 in his first innings of the triangular series having missed two games through injury.

“We’re about to find out,” he said when he was asked at the toss if his hamstring would hold up.

It would not. “I’ll be on a plane home in the next 24 hours to get it fixed,” Clarke said after the match.

Neither would Clarke’s team make it through the day unscathed. Zimbabwe earned only their second win over Australia in 30 completed one-day internationals - their first since their inaugural game in Nottingham at the 1983 World Cup.

A pitch that demanded application begrudged runs, and Clarke had to earn his first six of them the hard way before hitting the 16th ball he faced for four. He had just one more boundary in his 50, which took him 80 balls.

“They bowled spin really well, and they showed us how to play spin,” he said.

Had Clarke been fully fit when he took the single that brought up his half-century, he would have sprinted down the pitch and turned to see if a second run was possible. On Sunday, he shambled to the non-striker’s end, turned out of courtesy to his team and his batting partner, and stayed put.

In the 10th over after he had raised his bat, Clarke retired hurt on 68. He kept his pads on in the dressingroom and returned with two balls left in the innings, both of which turned out to be full tosses bowled by Tiripano.

Nathan Lyon duly swatted the first over midwicket for six. But Lyon did not connect the second as meatily, and Clarke did not look comfortable on the double.

When the Australians came out to field, Clarke was not among them. He appeared after 18 overs of Zimbabwe’s reply.

His removal from the equation for the rest of the tournament promises to be a rude awakening for Australia considering how he had to pull them out of trouble on Sunday.

Clarke came to the crease in the fourth over and saw five more wickets fall for 86 runs in 25 overs as Australia stumbled to 97/5.

Haddin’s streetfighter’s approach and Clarke’s class realised a stand of 50 before Haddin and Ben Cutting put on 51.

That took Australia to 209/9, a total seemingly out of reach of a team who last passed 200 against Afghanistan five ODIs previously.

But Zimbabwe found a way on Sunday, not least in a stand of 55 between Elton Chigumbura and Prosper Utseya that took them all the way home with two overs to spare.

“Credit to Zimbabwe; we were outplayed today,” Clarke said.

Australia suffered their first loss of the tournament against SA on Wednesday. They will face them again on Tuesday.

Mitchell Johnson, who sat out on Sunday, will doubtless be back. But Clarke won’t, and with him will go a large part of Australia’s confidence.