Zimbabwe took out Australia’s arrogance, defeated them by 23 runs, defeated for the second time in T20 World Cup.

Delhi: The first major upset of the T20 World Cup 2026 has happened. Zimbabwe has surprised everyone by defeating Australia (AUS vs ZIM) by 23 runs. In this match held at R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, Zimbabwe, batting first, scored 169 runs losing 2 wickets. In the reply innings, the Australian team collapsed for 146 runs with 3 balls remaining. In this way, Zimbabwe was defeated for the second time in the history of T20 World Cup. The last time Zimbabwe defeated Australia in this tournament was in 2007.

Great performance by Zimbabwe’s batsmen

At the beginning of the match, Travis Head won the toss and chose to bowl first. However, his decision did not prove correct, because the bowlers of the Kangaroo team failed to trouble the Zimbabwean batsmen.

Brian Bennett and Thadivanashe Marumani gave a great start to their team and made an important partnership of 61 runs for the first wicket. This pair was broken by Marcus Stoinis. Marumani was out after scoring 35 runs in 21 balls, his innings included 7 fours.

Ryan Burl came to the crease as the third batsman. He also contributed 35 runs. After this, Zimbabwe did not lose any wicket and scored 169 runs at the loss of 2 wickets after playing the entire over. Bennett played an amazing inning and scored unbeaten 64 runs on 56 balls. At the same time, 25* runs came from the bat of captain Sikandar Raza.

Australian batsmen defeated by Zimbabwe bowlers

Chasing the target, Travis Head and Company had a very poor start. Star players like Josh Inglis (8), Head (17), Tim David (0) and Cameron Green (0) proved to be flops. By the total of 29, four wickets of the Kangaroo team fell and from here Zimbabwe started tightening its grip on the match. Glenn Maxwell tried to hit big hits in the middle overs, but the ball was not coming on his bat. He was out after playing a slow innings of 32 runs in 31 balls. At one time it seemed as if Australia’s score would not even reach 100, but Matt Renshaw was not ready to accept defeat. He stood firm, but no one from the other end was able to support him.

Matt Renshaw could not lead Australia to victory

Due to this, the pressure on Renshaw kept increasing and he was caught out while trying to play a big shot. He scored 65 runs after facing 44 balls. In this way the Australian team could not even play the entire over and collapsed for 146 runs.

Blessing Muzarabani’s match-winning performance

The hero of this victory for Zimbabwe was Muzarabani, who took 4 wickets for just 17 runs in his 4 over spell. For this performance Muzarabani was chosen player of the match.

Australia suffered a huge loss in the points table

Due to this defeat, the Australian team has also suffered a huge loss in the points table. In Group C, Zimbabwe team has come second with 4 points, its net run rate is +1.984. On the other hand, Australia has slipped to third position. After one win and one loss in two matches, he has 2 points in his account, his net run rate is +1.100. Whereas, Sri Lanka is on top with 4 points and net rate of +3.125.

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