T20 World Cup 2026: Australia vs Zimbabwe Highlights, Match 19 - Stats, Player of the Match & More

Match Overview

Australia and Zimbabwe locked horns in the 19th match of the ICC T20 World Cup 2026 at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Friday, February 13. Australian captain Travis Head won the toss and elected to field first.

Zimbabwe openers - Brian Bennett and Tadiwanashe Marumani - provided their team with a very good start, scoring 47 runs in the powerplay on a slow Khettarama wicket. Stoinis broke the 61-run partnership by sending back Marumani, but Bennett and Ryan Burl formed another big partnership of 70 runs to put the Chevrons in a commanding position by the 16th over. Raza provided the late flourish along with Bennett who got to his 10th T20I fifty as Zimbabwe ended with a competitive 169/2.

Australia had a disastrous start as they lost their top four batters within five overs for 29 runs on the board only. But, Glenn Maxwell and Matt Renshaw rebuilt the innings with a 77-run partnership off 59 balls and brought Australia to a position from where they could launch. However, Maxwell fell at just the wrong time for Australia as 64 runs off 34 balls were still required.

Unfortunately for the Aussies, they lost wickets at regular intervals thereafter and even Renshaw who was there till the penultimate over could not finish the match. In the end, Zimbabwe beat Australia by 23 runs, making it their second win against the Men in Yellow in T20 World Cups in as many matches.

Top run-scorer of the match

Top wicket-taker of the match

Player of the Match

Blessing Muzarabani

Muzarabani began his spell with a wicket off his first ball. Josh Inglis was his first victim and the lanky pacer came back in his second over to send back Tim David off his second ball. The right-armer came back for his last spell and dismissed Renshaw which almost won the game for Zimbabwe. Moreover, the 29-year-old clean bowled Adam Zampa around the legs to make it his first four-wicket haul in T20Is. In all, Muzarabani has seven wickets to his name in the tournament right now. 

Turning Point

The powerplay overs during Australia's chase was the turning point of the match as Muzarabani and Brad Evans rocked Australia. With them being 29/4 in 4.3 overs, it became a tough ask for the batters to come next as the pitch was slow and stroke-making was not easy. A batter had to take some time to settle down before trying to launch the attack. As a result, Australia never found a steady momentum afterwards and Zimbabwe pounced on them to register a dramatic win.

What the captains said

Winning Team Captain, Sikandar Raza (ZIM)

"First of all, we have only got 13 able bodies in the squad and then I went down. Cremer has got a slight split webbing, but nothing serious. We even asked Dion Ebrahim to put the kit on in case we need him. But I think Zimbabwe cricket is looking into the replacements and things like that. I am sure they will be here for the next game because ideally in these conditions, you don't know what's going to happen, so you want 15 able bodies available for selection at every given time. I will allow the boys to enjoy it and I think they deserve to enjoy it today. But for me and the coach, I think the homework for the next game starts. Where we are is a great position, but it doesn't guarantee anything. So the next game becomes the most important game for Zimbabwe now."

Losing Team Captain, Travis Head (AUS)

"We thought it was a good wicket. It was a little bit tacky at the start. We thought it was going to be pretty even throughout the whole contest and I think it showed that it was. I thought we did okay although we had taken only two wickets in our innings, I felt like it was still probably under-par. So, felt like it came on really well in the second innings. We lost wickets. The first half was under pressure. They played well, like I said, I still felt like if you gave us that score after winning the toss and applying off it did, I think we would take the score. So, I don't think, like you look back and there is no over here or there that you might do differently or switch around, but I felt like we worked through it well and we were on the score that we would have been happy to chase."