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Australia won the toss and elected to bat - obviously going for that big total that Ponting wanted, but some decent work Zim's bowlers restricted the Aussies to 290/7 from their 50 overs - and if Zimbabwe had taken their chances, the score could have been lower, as Australia's three top scorers were each spared when catch opportunities were dropped. 8 of Zimbabwe's bowlers had a go, with Sean Williams being the best of the bunch (2/48 from 8 overs), while Prosper Utseya seems to have recovered some of his form, his 10 overs going for just 36 runs. With the Aussies having set out their stall as looking for a big total in this match, restricting them to under 300 has to be seen as a positive for Zimbabwe, although to be fair the pitch wasn't the most batsman-friendly.

As ever, Zimbabwe's innings got off to a poor start when openers Terrence Duffin and Vusi Sibanda both fell cheaply, leaving them struggling on 2/32, but the middle order chipped in with some useful performances (Chamu Chibhabha 22, Sean Williams 44, Stuart Matsikenyeri 35) - but unfortunately the scoring was at too slow a rate to ever threaten the Australian total. To their credit Zim did frustrate the Aussie bowlers by completing their allotted overs, evenutally finishing on 184/7, but while this wasn't the hammering that some were expecting it will still have been a disappointment for them to lose by over 100 runs.

Positives: Sean Williams continues to be an impressive all-round contributor to the side, while most of the bowlers who got a spell performed reasonably well - although Rainsford's economy rate of 8.00 was worryingly high. Negatives: the batting is still a worry, with the top order in particular still failing to do their job, and the lack of any sort of killer instinct when chasing is a real concern. Bermuda at least should give Zim an opportunity to have some fun before the real work starts against Ireland.

Quotes
Australia captain Ricky Ponting at least wasn't scathing about the level of opposition provided by Zimbabwe, and was philosophical about his sides failure to bowl Zim out:

"Ours was a better workout than [England] got. At this stage of the tournament most teams are looking to get some quality time in the middle and we got through 100 overs today. In one-day cricket on wickets like that, which are really slow and low, it can be quite difficult to bowl teams out. I wasn't surprised today and it was probably more beneficial to us that we didn't."

Zim captain Prosper Utseya rued his side's missed chances:

"We could have kept them to 240 if we had taken all our chances. We let them off the hook a little bit."

Australia 290/7 (50 overs; Clarke 82, Williams 2/48), Zimbabwe 184/7 (50 overs; Williams 44, Clark 2/33). Australia win by 106 runs.

Check below the cut for the match scorecard.
CricInfo - Zimbabwe workout pleases Ponting

Australia innings
SR Watson 	c Chigumbura b Williams 	81 	
BJ Haddin 	c Williams b Rainsford 		47 	
RT Ponting 	c Taylor b Chigumbura 		2 	
MJ Clarke 	c Brent b Mpofu 		82 	
BJ Hodge 	c Williams b Dabengwa 		17 	
MEK Hussey 	c Brent b Williams 		15 	
GB Hogg 	run out (Utseya) 		5 	
MG Johnson 	not out 			20 	
NW Bracken 	not out 			13 	
	    Extras 	(w 2, nb 6) 		8 	
	    Total 	(7 wickets; 50 overs) 	290 	

Did not bat: SR Clark, SW Tait, GD McGrath

Fall of wickets: 1-91 (Haddin, 14.5 ov), 
2-105 (Ponting, 18.2 ov), 3-149 (Watson, 25.4 ov), 
4-177 (Hodge, 31.6 ov), 5-224 (Hussey, 41.1 ov), 
6-237 (Hogg, 44.5 ov), 7-266 (Clarke, 47.4 ov)

Bowling 	O 	M 	R 	W 	Econ 	
CB Mpofu 	7 	1 	44 	1 	6.28 	
AJ Ireland 	6 	1 	40 	0 	6.66 	
EC Rainsford 	4 	0 	32 	1 	8.00 	
GB Brent 	7 	0 	40 	0 	5.71 	
E Chigumbura 	1 	0 	5 	1 	5.00 	
P Utseya 	10 	1 	36 	0 	3.60 	
SC Williams 	8 	0 	48 	2 	6.00 	
KM Dabengwa 	7 	0 	45 	1 	6.42 	

			
Zimbabwe innings
T Duffin 	c Haddin b Bracken 		5 	
V Sibanda 	c Haddin b Johnson 		5 	
CJ Chibhabha 	c Clarke b Clark 		22 	
SC Williams 	c & b Hodge 			44 	
S Matsikenyeri 	run out 			35 	
E Chigumbura 	c Johnson b Clark 		15 	
BRM Taylor 	not out 			10 	
KM Dabengwa 	b McGrath 			15 	
GB Brent 	not out 			0 	
	    Extras 	(b 5, lb 8, w 15, nb 5) 33 	
	    Total 	(7 wickets; 50 overs) 	184 	

Did not bat: P Utseya, CB Mpofu, EC Rainsford, AJ Ireland

Fall of wickets: 1-11 (Duffin, 5.3 ov), 
2-32 (Sibanda, 10.2 ov), 3-56 (Chibhabha, 20.2 ov), 
4-123 (Williams, 33.5 ov), 5-159 (Chigumbura, 43.4 ov), 
6-160 (Matsikenyeri, 44.1 ov), 7-184 (Dabengwa, 49.5 ov)

Bowling 	O 	M 	R 	W 	Econ 	
SW Tait 	7 	1 	24 	0 	3.42 	
NW Bracken 	5 	2 	8 	1 	1.60 	
GD McGrath 	5 	2 	8 	1 	1.60 	
MG Johnson 	7 	2 	22 	1 	3.14 	
SR Clark 	7 	0 	33 	2 	4.71 	
GB Hogg 	8 	0 	36 	0 	4.50 	
BJ Hodge 	6 	1 	26 	1 	4.33 	
SR Watson 	5 	1 	14 	0 	2.80