Zimbabwean cricket team in Australia in 2003–04


The Zimbabwean cricket team toured Australia in the 2003–04 season. On the tour, the Zimbabweans played two unclassified matches, one First-class match, three List A matches and two Tests, as well as taking part in the 2003–04 VB Series with Australia and India – who were touring Australia for four Tests at the same time. The Zimbabweans lost all but one international match – both Tests and seven of the eight One Day Internationals – the exception being called off for rain.
The tour was notable for Matthew Hayden's score of 380 in the first Test, this being the highest individual score in Test cricket at the time, beating Brian Lara's 375.

Tour matches

Three-day: Zimbabweans v Rockingham-Mandurah Invitational XI

50-over: Zimbabweans v Cricket Australia Chairman's XI

First-class: Zimbabweans v Western Australia

List A: Zimbabweans v Australia A

List A: Zimbabweans v Western Australia

List A: Zimbabweans v Australia A

2003–04 VB Series

Zimbabwe and Australia played in a tri-series tournament with India for the Australian Tri-Series, at the time sponsored by Victoria Bitter. Played in a round-robin format, all three teams played each other four times, meaning eight matches each, with the top two teams going through to a head-to-head final to decide the winner.

Group stage

Table key

The deciding factors, in order, on table position were:
  1. Total points
  2. Games won
  3. Head-to-head result
  4. Bonus points
  5. Net run rate

    Final series

First final

Second final

was named Man of the Series for being leading run scorer, with 996 runs to his name.

Test matches

First Test

Matthew Hayden recorded the highest score ever in Test cricket, at the time, with his 380 in the first innings, surpassing the 375 set by Brian Lara in Antigua a decade earlier. Lara went on to reclaim the record less than six months later, however, with his 400 not out against England.

Second Test

Records

Australia's Matthew Hayden was named Man of the Series for his 501 runs over the two Tests and the historic triple-century. Comparatively, Mark Vermeulen scored the most runs for Zimbabwe with 166. Andy Bichel took the most wickets of the series with 10, with Ray Price taking six for Zimbabwe.