Location Australia Australia Zimbabwe | Player of the series Matthew Hayden Steve Waugh Heath Streak | |
Date 28 September 2003 – 3 February 2004 Result Australia won the two-Test series 2-0 | ||
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.
Contents
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.
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.
Table key
Points system
Position deciders
The deciding factors, in order, on table position were:
- Total points
- Games won
- Head-to-head result
- Bonus points
- Net run rate
Second final
Adam Gilchrist was named Man of the Series for being leading run scorer, with 996 runs to his name.
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.
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.