Travis Head made 112 from 84 balls, and Australia have the series with a game to spare

Australia have taken the one-day series in Zimbabwe with a match to spare, winning the second ODI at Harare Sports Club by 84 runs on 18 September after Travis Head hit 112 from 84 balls.

Head and Marsh put on 130 before the first wicket fell

Zimbabwe won the toss and asked Australia to bat, which is a defensible call at Harare and a painful one when Head is in this mood. He reached fifty off 32 balls and a hundred off 75, and by the time Wessly Madhevere had him caught in the 28th over, Australia were 190 for 2 and the innings had already been decided.

Mitchell Marsh was the quieter half of an opening stand worth 130 in 19 overs. The captain made 53 from 63 with three fours and three sixes, and was bowled by Wellington Masakadza off the last ball of the 19th over. Cooper Connolly then took over with 78 off 69, and Oliver Peake finished the innings with 41 not out from 18 balls, three of them sixes. Australia scored 101 in the last ten overs and closed on 356 for 6.

Brad Evans took three wickets and conceded 86 in his nine overs, which sums up the afternoon for Zimbabwe’s seamers. Masakadza was the one bowler who kept the rate under six, going for 51 in nine. Blessing Muzarabani, who has troubled far better batting line-ups than this one, finished wicketless for 68.

Zimbabwe kept getting starts and kept giving them away

A chase of 357 needs someone to bat through, and Zimbabwe instead produced seven scores between 23 and 45. Sikandar Raza top-scored with 45 from 49 balls and was the ninth man out. Brendan Taylor made 39, Craig Ervine 38, Innocent Kaia 34, Ben Curran 30. Not one partnership reached 60.

The powerplay set the problem. Zimbabwe were 41 without loss after ten overs while Australia had been 78 without loss at the same point, and a gap of that size against a total this big is not something you recover in the middle overs. Wessly Madhevere’s 26 from 13 near the end was the only innings played at the required rate, and by then Zimbabwe needed more than 12 an over.

Australia used eight bowlers and six of them took a wicket. Josh Hazlewood was the tightest with 2 for 48 from nine overs including two maidens, Connolly took 2 for 25, and Adam Zampa and Matt Renshaw picked up two each. Zimbabwe were bowled out for 272 with nine balls left, a scoreline that flatters the contest more than it should.

Nathan Ellis is quietly running the series

Nathan Ellis took one wicket in this game and still leads the series with six at 10.33, almost all of it built on the 5 for 31 he took in the opener on 15 September. That was a career best, and it defended 294 for 8 on a good batting pitch after Matt Renshaw had made his first ODI hundred. Australia won that one by 59.

Zimbabwe’s own five-for in that match has aged better than the result. Newman Nyamhuri, a 20-year-old left-arm seamer, took 5 for 62 and became the youngest Zimbabwean to take a five-wicket haul in an ODI at 20 years and 239 days. He and Brad Evans have five wickets each in the series. The batting is what has not turned up.

The third ODI is at Harare on Sunday 20 September and settles nothing, which makes it the most useful game of the three for both squads. Oliver Peake, who turned 20 on 11 September, has faced 18 balls in this match and will want a longer look. Zimbabwe have a more pressing reason to sort out their top order than most sides do: they co-host the 50-over World Cup with South Africa and Namibia from October 2027, and home tournaments are unforgiving of batting line-ups that cannot bat 50 overs.

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