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Within 80 balls in to the chase, it was all but over. A penetrative spell from Darren Sammy, in which he took three wickets from his first three overs – later adding one more to his tally – left the Zimbabwean top order reeling in their chase of 246 at Arnos Vale. The visitors had thrown in the towel at 58 for 5 went on to concede the game by a massive 141 runs, which gave West Indies a 2-1 lead in the series.

Match Facts

Thursday, March 11
Start time 1400 (0100 GMT)

The Big Picture

The most important match of the series, as the players described it, went to Australia. They now hold a 2-1 lead with two matches to play and victory in Auckland will ensure they retain the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy that they won at home in December 2007 and retained through a drawn series in Australia last February. Their win on Tuesday in Hamilton was easily their most complete performance of the tour as their bowlers fired early and dismissed New Zealand, before the top-order batsmen clicked and a centurion was found. Michael Clarke’s dash home to see his fiancée didn’t upset their balance and they will be looking to turn the final game in Wellington into a dead rubber.

The PCB has struck against its players with a venom unseen in recent memory, carrying out the deepest cull of a senior cricket team in many years and banning and fining seven of its top players after the side’s disastrous, winless tour of Australia. It has banned Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf, from playing for Pakistan in any format for an indefinite period, while handing out one-year bans to Shoaib Malik and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan. Shahid Afridi and the Akmal brothers were fined Rs2-3 million [$24,000-35,000] for various misdemeanours and put on six-month probations.

Brad Haddin’s second one-day international century gave Australia a 2-1 lead and the most one-sided victory of the tour, as they chased down their target with 16 balls to spare. Haddin’s 110 was his highest ODI score and he ended Daniel Vettori’s hopes of winning what he said before the match was “the most important game of the series”.

Ricky Ponting was annoyed in the opening two games at his batsmen’s inability to capitalise on their starts, and they resolved that problem at Seddon Park. Ponting made 69 and combined with Haddin for a matchwinning 151-run partnership that justified Ponting’s rare decision to send New Zealand in. It is a gamble he has taken 24 times in his ODI captaincy career for a remarkable 20 victories.

Ijaz Butt, the PCB chairman, has promised to take “more than significant” action against leading Pakistan players in the aftermath of an inquiry committee report looking into Pakistan’s recent tour of Australia, during which they lost every single international match they played, as well as tours to New Zealand and Abu Dhabi before that.

Recommendations of the report, compiled by a six-man committee headed by Wasim Bari, include heavy fines and bans on top Pakistan players, including Shahid Afridi, the Akmal brothers, Naved-ul-Hasan and Shoaib Malik.

Shoaib Akhtar has hit out at the Pakistan board’s decision to deduct Rs 7 million ($82,353) from his annual earnings as punishment for a contested misdemeanor under the previous PCB regime.

Shoaib was banned for five years by Nasim Ashraf’s administration in April 2008 for what it claimed were several violations of the players’ disciplinary code of conduct. After an appeal, the ban was reduced in June to 18 months and the fine remained.

The PCB has confirmed the appointment of former fast bowler Waqar Younis as Pakistan coach, replacing Intikhab Alam. Waqar has been offered a contract till December 2011 and comes to the helm after a disastrous tour of Australia, which Pakistan finished without a win. Former Pakistan batsman Ijaz Ahmed, who was in charge of the national Under-19 team which reached the final of the World Cup in New Zealand, will be the batting and fielding coach.

Daniel Vettori stuck his stiff neck out with a brilliant innings that nearly delivered victory for New Zealand but Ryan Harris chopped him off to end the plucky fight as Australia levelled the series 1-1. There were some very nervous moments for Australia as they let New Zealand recover from 131 for 6 to almost reach their goal of 266 before the visitors’ blushes were saved.

It came down to 13 required from 11 balls when Vettori walked across his stumps and attempted a shot he had used to great effect throughout his innings. However, this time when he tried to flick Harris behind square leg his stumps were rattled, his fightback finished at 70 from 49 balls, and Australia avoided going down 2-0 with three to play.

After an ODI series that was perhaps closer than the 3-0 scoreline suggests, the general consensus is that Bangladesh cricket is slowly reaching the standard required to compete on equal terms with the bigger nations in world cricket. But “slowly”, unfortunately, is the operative word, and in Chittagong on Sunday, one of the slowest developers of them all returns to centre stage.

Mohammad Ashraful epitomises all the promise and frustration of Bangladesh cricket. When he’s in form, he bats with a fluency that few in the world can match – never more thrillingly than during his century on debut against Sri Lanka in September 2001, when he was a carefree whippersnapper of 16, which encapsulated the richness of talent that the country seemed set to produce.

Chris Gayle, hurting after the last-over defeat in the first ODI, delivered a gritty all-round performance with support from Narsingh Deonarine to help steer West Indies to a series-levelling win – their first victory in an international fixture since August last year. The pair got together when Zimbabwe’s spinners had, yet again, put in an inspired effort to cripple the hosts in their chase of 207. But Gayle restrained himself amid the quick wickets that followed a fiery start, and opened up in timely fashion with Deonarine once Zimbabwe appeared to step off the pedal, to set the stage for a hard-fought victory. The batting backed up a disciplined effort from West Indies’ bowlers, led by Nikita Miller’s career-best haul.