NEWLANDS, Sept 12: Zimbabwe gave themselves a huge chance of causing perhaps the biggest upset of the Twenty20 World Cup when they restricted world champions Australia to 138 for nine in disciplined bowling-fielding performance on Wednesday.

Aussie skipper Ricky Ponting won the toss and elected to bat first, perhaps sensing a chance for some practice for his top order against one of the weaker sides in the tournament.

However, the skippers had barely left the pitch after the toss when light showers descended on Newlands, and while play got underway on time with no overs reduced, conditions were tricky with plenty of swing in the air.

Matthew Hayden quickly found this out the hard way as Elton Chigumbura found his edge and Brendon Taylor did the rest behind the stumps. Chigumbura struck again in his very next over, removing dangerman Adam Gilchrist as he was caught by Stuart Matsikenyeri in the deep.

With the openers gone for four runs each, Ponting (eight from 12 balls) tried to stabilise the innings and scratched around for a while, but when he finally freed his arms it was to slice one straight to third man off Gary Brent’s bowling.

That left the world champions on 21 for three after their first five overs before Michael Hussey and Andrew Symonds (33) provided some stability. Vusi Sibanda ran Hussey out.

Australia’s fifty eventually came up from 63 deliveries with four wickets down and their first six only arrived in the 14th over through Brad Hodge who scored a superb 35 off 22 balls with two fours and two sixes.

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