Zimbabwe v Australia, 3rd ODI in Harare: what Sunday turns on

Zimbabwe and Australia finish their three-match ODI series at Harare Sports Club on Sunday 20 September 2026. Australia lead 1-0 after winning the opener by 59 runs on 15 September, with the second ODI on 18 September. All three games are at Harare, Australia’s first ODIs in Zimbabwe since 2014.

Australia and Zimbabwe close their three-match ODI series at Harare Sports Club on Sunday 20 September. It is the last game of Australia's first one-day tour of Zimbabwe in 12 years, and their last match before they move on to South Africa.

Everything below is as at 18 September 2026, before the second ODI is played. Live coverage of both remaining games is on CPL's live scores, and the full fixture list is on the schedule.

Where does the series stand?

Australia lead 1-0. They won the opener on Tuesday 15 September by 59 runs, making 294 for 8 from their 50 overs and then bowling Zimbabwe out for 235 in 45.1.

All three matches are at the same ground, and all start at 9:30am local time in Harare, which is 5:30pm AEST.

Australia last played ODIs in Zimbabwe in 2014, and last visited the country at all for a T20 tri-series in 2018. Mitch Marsh, who led the side in the first ODI, was playing his 100th one-day international that day.

How did Australia win the first ODI?

Through a rebuild rather than a burst. Australia's top four were gone inside 20 overs. Matt Renshaw, batting at six, made 109 from 94 balls for his maiden ODI hundred and his first international century in a decade, adding 72 with Alex Carey and 75 with Ollie Peake.

Newman Nyamhuri, a 20-year-old left-arm quick, took 5 for 62 in his first international five-wicket haul. So did Nathan Ellis at the other end of the day, whose 5 for 31 came from 9.1 overs and included two wickets in his opening over.

Zimbabwe's chase turned on one stand. They were 62 for 4 when Ervine and Raza came together and 160 when the partnership broke — 98 runs, and by some distance the innings. Raza was batting with a right knee injury, and Zimbabwe lost their last six wickets for 75.

Why does the head-to-head read the way it does?

Because Australia have won nearly all of them. The two sides have met 34 times in ODIs since 1983. Australia have won 30 of the 33 completed matches; one was a no result.

Zimbabwe's three wins are worth listing, because each one arrived when nobody was expecting it.

The Townsville match is the most recent and the strangest: Australia were bowled out for 141, David Warner made 94 of them, and Ryan Burl took 5 for 10 from three overs. Zimbabwe got home with 66 balls to spare.

More relevant to this week is what happened in February. At the T20 World Cup in Colombo on 13 February 2026, Zimbabwe made 169 for 2 and bowled Australia out for 146 — a 23-run win, with Blessing Muzarabani taking 4 for 17 and Brian Bennett making 64. Renshaw top-scored for Australia that night with 65.

Both squads carry most of the same names. Raza, Muzarabani, Bennett, Brad Evans and Tadiwanashe Marumani were all part of that night; so were Renshaw, Marsh and Ellis on the other side.

"They've had the wood over us more recently at the T20 World Cup."

— Nathan Ellis, speaking to cricket.com.au before the series

How have both sides been playing?

Not as the head-to-head suggests. Australia arrived in Harare having lost their last two ODI series, both away, and Zimbabwe arrived having won their last one at home.

Two qualifications matter. Mitch Marsh and Travis Head both missed the Pakistan and Bangladesh tours and are back for this one, so those results are not a like-for-like guide to the side playing on Sunday. Zimbabwe's record, meanwhile, is almost entirely home form on this ground — every one of their last nine ODIs has been played at Harare Sports Club.

What both records share is that neither side has been winning 50-over cricket consistently for a year. That is the context Sunday sits in.

What has Harare Sports Club been doing?

It is one of the busiest ODI grounds in the world: 272 men's ODIs staged there as at 18 September 2026. Every one of Zimbabwe's nine ODIs since the start of 2025 has been played on it.

Chasing has been the marginally better side of the coin. Of the last 17 completed ODIs at the ground, going back to March 2023, ten were won by the side batting second and seven by the side batting first. Two more were washed out.

That is close enough to even that the toss is not the story. The first ODI of this series is the better guide to the surface: easy-paced, good to bat on, with large square boundaries that reward a batter willing to sweep and reverse-sweep rather than hit down the ground. Renshaw did exactly that against Zimbabwe's spinners.

It also rewarded control. Muzarabani's ten overs went for 46 without a wicket; Ellis conceded 31 in 9.1 and took five. On a surface this flat, the bowler who gives nothing away tends to end up with the figures.

Which matchups shape Sunday?

Four of them, on the evidence of Tuesday.

• Zimbabwe's new ball against Australia's top four. Head, Marsh, Connolly and Inglis were all back in the shed inside 20 overs in the opener. Zimbabwe have now done that to Australia twice in 2026, in two formats.
• Nathan Ellis in the middle overs. Two wickets in his first over, then the ball that removed Ervine. Australia used him in bursts rather than straight through.
• Raza and Ervine against Adam Zampa. Zampa bowled his full ten for 1 for 55. Zimbabwe's two senior batters played him without alarm; getting one of them early changes the chase.
• Australia's lower middle order. Renshaw at six and Peake at seven are the reason 294 happened. Zimbabwe kept taking wickets and still conceded a near-300 total.

What is each side still trying to settle?

Australia are picking from a squad missing Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc, who were named only for the South Africa leg of the tour ahead of the World Test Championship series that starts in October. Cameron Green sat out the first ODI with right shoulder soreness described as not serious, and Josh Hazlewood was managed with the Test series in mind. Billy Stanlake and Joel Davies are in the squad without having played yet.

Zimbabwe are without their regular captain. Richard Ngarava is recovering from a lower-back injury, Tanaka Chivanga is out with an Achilles problem, and wicketkeeper-batter Clive Madande was unavailable, so Raza leads and Brendan Taylor is back for his first ODIs in a year. Leg-spinner Graeme Cremer is also in the squad, eight years after his last ODI.

Squad lists for both sides are on CPL's team pages.

What does Friday's result change?

Quite a lot, in both directions.

• If Zimbabwe level the series, Sunday becomes a decider: a home ODI series against Australia still alive on the last day, in front of a Harare crowd.
• If Australia go 2-0 up, the series is won and Sunday turns into a selection game. Billy Stanlake and Joel Davies are in the squad without a match, Cameron Green is working back from shoulder soreness, and Josh Hazlewood is being kept for the Test series that follows.

Either way the game is played. Neither board has a dead-rubber problem here, because both sides are using these matches to work out a World Cup XI rather than to settle a trophy.

Where does this series sit in the 2027 build-up?

Directly in it. Zimbabwe co-host the 2027 ODI World Cup with South Africa and Namibia, and this is one of the few chances either side gets to play 50-over cricket in the conditions the tournament will be played in. Australia's six ODIs this month — three here, three in South Africa from 24 September — are the point of the trip.

Australia's chief selector George Bailey put it plainly when the squads were named.

"This six-game series is an important lead-in to next year's World Cup, being played in the same countries, for the group."

— George Bailey, ICC squad announcement

For Zimbabwe the calculation is different. They arrive at the World Cup as hosts regardless of results, which makes three games against Australia useful in a way that a qualification scramble would not be. They also arrive with recent evidence: they won their ODI series against Bangladesh at this ground 2-1 in July, and Australia lost their last two ODI series, in Pakistan and Bangladesh, before landing in Harare.

Series standings and points tables for both tours are on CPL's series pages.

Statistics in this article were checked as at 18 September 2026.

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