Scorecard

Zimbabwe produced a listless performance and caved in to Australia`s gigantic total of 344 the fourth match in the VB tri-series, in Hobart on Friday.

They could score just 196 for 6 in the 50 overs and lost by 148 runs.

Earlier, a regal 172 from Adam Gilchrist propelled Australia to 344 for 7, after Ricky Ponting won the toss and elected to bat.

Opening the batting with Matthew Hayden, Gilchrist wove a 140-run partnership for the first wicket and then followed it up with another century stand with skipper Ponting for the second wicket.

At the rate he was batting, he threatened to score the first ever double-century in One-Day Internationals. After his dismissal though Australia lost their way, losing wickets in a heap. An unbeaten 48 from Damien Martyn took Australia closer to the 350-run mark.

Australia innings:

Australia skipper Ricky Ponting won the toss and elected to bat first on a belter of a track against a beleaguered Zimbabwean team.

Zimbabwean skipper Heath Streak had asked for one-day cricket to be sexed up; one of the main rules he wanted altered was the field restrictions for the first 15 overs of the match. Rightly so. It's not the most pleasing sights to look up at the scoreboard as the fielding captain and see a 100-plus total registered inside the first 15 overs.

Aussie openers Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden took guard and it was another quintessential day at the office. Anything wide off the off-stump was cut or slashed, forcing fielders to get out of the way considering discretion is the better part of valour; anything short was pulled and pulled hard.

The Bellerive Oval has a history of some early assistance to the bowlers before the wicket dozes off for the rest of the day. And though the ball did not really come onto the bat, the Aussie openers rampaged through the Zimbabwean assembly of bowlers, never allowing a dull moment for skipper Streak on the field.

Streak, Sean Ervine and Andy Blignaut were guilty of bowling too short to the openers, whose first spoken words were pull and cut. And though both Hayden and Gilchrist did not time the ball well, they got enough wood on it to send it packing to the fence. Hayden, in complete contempt of the Zimbabwean bowling, stepped out to the seamers while Gilchrist probably took out his frustration of excessive cricket on the bowlers instead of the ICC or his own board.

The 100-run partnership was up in the 16th over, the tenth hundred-run partnership between Hayden and Gilchrist in one-dayers, and Australia were eyeing another 300-plus total.

Barring a dropped catch by Douglas Hondo behind square on the off-side, the Zimbabweans failed to extract anything from Gilchrist, who was impeccable. Both registered half-centuries with yawning ease, Hayden even forgetting to acknowledge his landmark until Gilchrist shook his hand.

Streak returned for his second spell and, thankfully, stuck to the basics, concentrating more on keeping the ball straight up to the wickets and a recalibrated length.

Pulling down on his pace, Streak had keeper Tatenda Taibu stand up to the wicket and a slower ball did the trick when Hayden picked Sibanda at mid-wicket. Hayden was gone for 63 and the Australian total, at 140-1 in the 23rd over, threatened to spill over the 350-run mark.

The remarkable aspect of the Hayden-Gilchrist partnership was the fact that though the boundaries flowed at an exponential rate, they never lost sight of the singles. Hayden had 30 singles in his 63, with five twos, which adds up to 40 of the 63 runs he scored.

After a long partnership, as it often happens, one wicket follows another unless your luck is as damned as Zimbabwe's. Gilchrist pulled one from left-arm spinner Ray Price that darted towards Andy Blignaut, at mid-wicket, who could only get a hand to the sizzler but failed to latch onto it.

Gilchrist then offered another chance when on 96 but was lucky to survive. He swept Grant Flower, got a top-edge, only to see the ball fall dead in no-man's land.

He raced to his hundred off just 89 balls with a strike rate of 112. A predominantly on-side innings (59 runs), Gilchrist had 38 singles and 13 twos in his knock, with only 29 dot balls. Only 30 runs came in fours and sixes and he scripted one of the most clinical one-day hundreds that appeared to be all fireworks when in fact it was a simple knock rooted in basics and the type any coach would love to see his batsman make.

Local boy Ponting walked out and scored only in singles till he got to 14 before he decided to attack. The Australian 200 was up in the 34th over and Zimbabwe were in serious soup.

In a clinical approach, the Australians paced their innings with precision. Between the 10th and the 33rd over, not a single over went for more than nine runs. Before the Zimbabweans could spell Matsikenyeri, the 100-run partnership for the second wicket between Gilchrist and Ponting was up, with the keeper scoring 65 of those in a mere 43 balls.

Ponting was gone for 37 when he mistimed Grant Flower to Matsikenyeri at long-off. An over before that, Matsikenyeri had been slammed for two huge sixes.

Gilchrist got his 150 off only 110 balls, having scored the last 50 runs from a mere 21 balls. In the process he also registered 6000 runs in the shorter version of the game.

After 40 overs, Australia were 267 for 2 and with another 10 overs remaining Gilchrist was threatening to score the first double hundred in one-day cricket.

Such was Gilchrist's onslaught that Australia raced from 200 to 250 in 32 balls and from 250 to the 300 mark in another 28.

The Zimbabweans were biding their time, praying for the Aussies to make mistakes, which they eventually did. Gilchrist, never one who bothers for records, played across the line to Ervine and was gone for 172, off a mere 126 balls. His knock had 56 singles, 20 twos and two threes, which accounts for 102 runs of his total. Add to that 13 fours, three sixes and you had a hundred as entertaining and effective.

Andrew Symonds was run out off the next ball and a few balls later Michael Bevan chipped Ervine and was caught by Streak for seven.

Michael Clarke and Andy Bichel were dismissed for ducks and the Australian innings, which was headed for a 350-plus total ended at 344-7.

Zimbabwe innings

Skipper Heath Streak scored yet another half-century in a losing battle even as Zimbabwe's unimpressive showing in Australia continued.

The defeat, by 263 runs, almost confirmed that the VB Series would be a two-horse race between Australia and India.

And that exactly is the problem with the series; if one team is weak or out of form, it takes the edge of the long tournament.

The Zimbabwe team seems woefully short on players and form. At this juncture, to have them compete with two giants -- India and Australia -- is truly not value for money viewing. Cricket Australia should be looking to experiment with the format of the one-day triangular series. A quadrangular tournament would not be bad idea even if it means accommodating one weak team and reducing the number of times the teams play each other.

This triangular tournament is so predictably boring that only 50 per cent of the games involving India and Australia will generate interest.

The Zimbabwe openers walked in to bat chasing 345 runs and dodging an indolent form. With Brett Lee returning to form after the nightmarish thrashing at the hands of the Indians, the Australians were looking for an early finish. And true to Australia's plan, the Zimbabweans rolled over and surrendered. Early wickets gave Australia the confidence to make the final twist of the knife in Zimbabwe's gut.

Vusimuzi Sibanda nicked Lee to keeper Gilchrist in the sixth over of the innings and the slide had begun.

Dion Ebrahim, who replaced the injured Stuart Carlisle, seemed out of place and with neither him nor Mark Vermeulen able to find the fence early on, Zimbabwe's chase was derailed before it kicked-off.

Vermeulen was gone nicking Williams, without moving his feet while Ebrahim went likewise, looking to pull Symonds and getting a feather touch to the keeper.

Chasing 345 if your team score reads 36 for 3 after 15 overs, its not good for the game nor for the spectators.

Grant Flower, looking woefully short of form, and even Sean Ervine's promotion failed to provide any impetus to the innings.

Ervine was surprised by the bounce from a Brad Hogg delivery and was caught at point.

At the halfway stage, Zimbabwe were 72 for 4 and drawing boos from a crowd, which was hoping for one of the Zimbabwean batsman to play a blinder of an innings.

It never came and the interest in the game was lost to everyone except the statisticians.  

Skipper Streak joined Flower and a subdued 41-run partnership followed with Zimbabwe biding their time for the inevitable.

The monotony of the partnership was broken when a misunderstanding saw Flower short of his crease and gone for a tedious 40 off 74 balls.

Streak got some batting practice, registered another half-century and probably showed his batsmen what batting is all about. His deputy, Tatenda Taibu, who was dismissed in the final over of the innings, kept him company and helped stitch together a 102-run partnership.

It is surprising that this side does not have place for a proven cricketer like Douglas Marrillier, but has the audacity to persevere with batsmen like Sibanda and Vermeulen.