Zimbabwean players do a lap of honor at the Harare Sports Ground.
There’s one word that’s been used more than any other to describe Australia’s defeat at the hands of Zimbabwe on Sunday.
Embarrassing.
There were certainly plenty of ashamed-looking Aussies walking from the field after Zimbabwe’s Prosper Utseya hit the winning runs to seal a memorable victory for the host nation.
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And Australia coach Darren Lehmann left his players in no doubt as to how they should be feeling after such a woeful performance.
But it’s not the first time – and dare we say it, it won’t be the last — Australia has been left red-faced by a loss in a limited-overs match.
Here we look at the most embarrassing one-day international defeats suffered by Australia.
Nottingham, 1983 — Australia loses to Zimbabwe by 13 runs
Of all Australia’s embarrassing one-day defeats, this one had the greatest consequences as it came during a World Cup. Yet the match will forever be remembered as the moment Zimbabwe arrived on the world stage.
The African nation had only received full independence three years earlier and this was its first official international cricket match — and what a way to announce your arrival. A well-made 69 by current India coach Duncan Fletcher helped Zimbabwe make 239, before a batting line-up featuring Allan Border, Kim Hughes and David Hookes fell 16 runs short in the run chase.
Cardiff, 2005 — Australia loses to Bangladesh by five wickets
Aussie fans may remember this game as the time Andrew Symonds turned up to the ground still smelling of alcohol (he was dropped from the XI after falling over during the warm-up), but Symonds was far from the only player embarrassed that day. This was a side featuring Ponting, Gilchrist, Hayden and McGrath, yet none of them could prevent Mohammad Ashraful becoming a national hero after guiding Bangladesh to victory with four balls to spare in front of a distinctly pro-Bangladesh crowd in Cardiff.
Adelaide, 1986 — Australia loses to New Zealand by 206 runs
Any loss to our trans-tasman rivals is hard to swallow. Suffering our heaviest-ever defeat in a one-day international to the Kiwis was simply unbearable (that record stands to this day, by the way).
Coming towards the end of a woeful summer in which New Zealand beat Australia 2-1 in the Test series, this match was simply the icing on the cake for Richard Hadlee’s men. The Kiwis made an impressive 276 batting first, but Australia’s batsmen barely troubled the scorers with a woeful effort in which they were bowled out for just 70.
David Boon and wicketkeeper Wayne Phillips were the only batsmen to make it into double figures.
Brisbane, 2013 — Australia loses to Sri Lanka by four wickets
The numbers to emerge from this match are fairly staggering. The Aussies were bowled out for just 74, but it could have been much worse after they slumped to an incredible 9-40.
Only a last wicket partnership between Mitchell Starc and Xavier Doherty saved the Aussies the infamy of making the country’s lowest over ODI total, but they were still humbled by Sri Lanka. The tourists lost six wickets in their run chase but managed to romp home with 30 overs — or 180 balls — to spare.
Harare, 2014 — Australia loses to Zimbabwe by three wickets
31 Years after its first ever international victory, Zimbabwe was again celebrating a historic win against Australia. The hosts’ spin-heavy bowling attack helped restrict the Aussies to 9-209, and it would have been much worse if not for a fighting knock by Aussie skipper Michael Clarke.
Zimbabwe was shaky during the run-chase but a lack of spin-bowling options came back to bite the Aussies, with part-timers Glenn Maxwell and Aaron Finch failing to trouble the Zimbabweans, who got home with two overs to spare.