{{Australia’s shock one-day international defeat to minnows Zimbabwe has raised alarm bells five months before the country co-hosts the World Cup while exposing the team’s continued struggles to master spin bowling.}}<\/p>\n
Coming off a long break following test series wins against England and South Africa, Australia arrived in Harare for the triangular one-day tournament with South Africa refreshed and optimistic, but the three-wicket loss to Zimbabwe will have done little for the team’s confidence after defeat to the Proteas and an injury to captain Michael Clarke.<\/p>\n
Sunday’s loss was Australia’s first in 30 years to Zimbabwe and the nation’s media ranked it highly among the country’s deepest cricketing humiliations.<\/p>\n
“There\u2019s one word that\u2019s been used more than any other to describe Australia\u2019s defeat at the hands of Zimbabwe on Sunday,” one critic wrote on a News Ltd website on Monday.<\/p>\n
“Embarrassing.”<\/p>\n
Clarke, who battled to an unbeaten 68 and retired hurt during a paltry innings of 209, was heading home to Australia on Monday for scans on his injured hamstring, leaving his team mates with some harsh parting words.<\/p>\n
“It’s a terrible performance, there’s no doubt about it,” he told reporters. “Forget the opposition, I think we played some average cricket at best throughout the whole game.<\/p>\n
“We play like that we’re not going to beat any team so whatever team’s selected we have to perform better than we did today.<\/p>\n
“The players will be having a think about their performance as well.” <\/p>\n
reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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