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Champions Australia batter Zimbabwe

Published:Tuesday | February 22, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Zimbabwe's Ray Price is hit from a rising delivery from Australia's Mitchell Johnson (not in photo) as he bats during the Cricket World Cup Group A match in Ahmadabad, India, yesterday. - AP

AHMADABAD, India (AP):

Australia made a winning start to their World Cup title defence yesterday after their bowlers ripped through the Zimbabwe batting order to seal a 91-run victory in Group A.

The four-time champions shrugged off a sluggish opening to the tournament with the bat as Mitchell Johnson claimed 4-19, Jason Krejza took 2-28 and Shaun Tait 2-34 to dismiss a Zimbabwe side which had made a positive start in the field.

Australia's batsmen struggled against Zimbabwe's spinners on the Sardar Patel Stadium pitch, despite half-centuries by Shane Watson (79) and Michael Clarke (58 not out).

Aggressive fast bowling

A late rally, led by Clarke, was needed to reach 262-6 after Australia had been tied down by Zimbabwe and only passed 200 in the 45th over.

But a barrage of aggressive fast bowling from Johnson, Tait and Lee and some clever spinning from Krejza put the Aussies in control, before Zimbabwe's run-chase was finally halted at 171 all out in the 47th over.

Australia extended their winning streak at World Cups to 24 matches and now hasn't lost at the event in 30 games.

"It wasn't a spectacular performance from us tonight, it was a good, solid performance," said Australia captain Ricky Ponting - who broke the appearance record at the World Cup with his 40th game. "We're working our way into the tournament and we know we have to improve in some areas.

Batting first after winning the toss, Australia saw opener Brad Haddin crawl to 29 off 66 balls before he was out lbw to off-spinner Prosper Utseya.

Ponting was run out for 28 without hitting a boundary, before Watson and Clarke lifted his side to a respectable, but not impressive total. With Clarke leading the way, the Aussies added 55 in the last five overs in a late surge to task them past 260.

In Zimbabwe's reply, only Sean Williams and tailenders Utseya and Graeme Cremer passed 20 under an efficient - and at times brutal - bowling display from Australia, led by left-armer Johnson.

"I thought our bowling and fielding was excellent today," Zim-babwe skipper Elton Chigumbura said. "But we must work on our batting. The number of wickets we lost, we just couldn't come back from that."