Australia 141 (Warner 94, Burl 5-10) vs Zimbabwe
Burl was introduced when Warner and Glenn Maxwell had started to rebuild for Australia with a sixth-wicket stand of 57 in nine overs. He claimed Maxwell with his fourth delivery and the last five wickets fell for 12 runs, including Warner taken at deep midwicket six short of his first international hundred since January 2020. It was the first time Zimbabwe had bowled Australia out in an ODI.
For the first time in the series, Zimbabwe had the chance to bowl when they won the toss and they made the most of it. Their seamers were excellent up front and Australia were never able to build a platform, although they contributed with some poor shot selection (or non-selection in Steven Smith’s case).
Aaron Finch’s struggles continued when, having managed one good-looking drive through cover, he fell to left-armer Richard Ngarava for the third time in the series, this time edging to second slip where Burl held the chance. In the next over, Smith padded up to a delivery that swung back from the recalled Victor Nyauchi and his use of the DRS showed it was taking the bails.
Australia have talked about taking an attacking approach in ODIs and Alex Carey tried to live by that when he aimed a huge drive at Brad Evans but could only edge behind. Evans then produced a beautiful delivery to find Marcus Stoinis’ outside edge, although Zimbabwe needed the review system to overturn a not-out call on the field.
When Cameron Green drove Sean Williams to cover, Australia were 72 for 5 in the 18th over and Warner, who was dominating the scoring, was in desperate need of someone to stay with him.
Maxwell managed that for a while and runs came at a good rate with Warner regularly finding the boundary. For a period it looked as though Zimbabwe were losing control with their seamers waiting to be brought back, but that all changed in an instant.
The final two wickets fell in the space of four balls as Mitchell Starc played all around one and Josh Hazlewood got a thin outside edge which, again, needed the DRS to be given out. Burl walked off holding the ball aloft, barely able to believe what had just happened.