Spencer Johnson and Nathan Ellis held their nerves in the third ODI to chase down 272 with a wicket and a ball to spare after Josh Inglis's second ODI ton had set them on course. Australia were comfortably placed at 162-3 just past the halfway mark in the innings, but Zimbabwe bowlers combined to reduce them to 206-7 and then 227-8. Brad Evans's dismissal of Adam Zampa left Australia reeling at 245-9, before the Ellis-Johnson duo took the team through in a thrilling finish.

Earlier in the game, Sikandar Raza's unbeaten 72-ball 81 had propelled the hosts to a competitive 271-8. Ellis picked up three wickets, and Spencer Johnson and Adam Zampa took two each.

As for the second ODI, Travis Head’s 84-ball 112 steered Australia to an above-par 356-6, before Zimbabwe were bundled out for 272. Josh Hazlewood, Cooper Connolly, Matt Renshaw and Adam Zampa had bagged two wickets each.

Renshaw starred with a 109 in the first ODI as Australia got to 294-8, and Newman Nyamhuri took a maiden ODI five-wicket haul. Ellis struck back with five wickets in Zimbabwe's chase to hand Australia a 59-run victory. Craig Ervine and Raza scored 59 and 57, respectively. 

Latest men’s ODI team rankings after the Zimbabwe vs Australia series

Australia, who were placed fourth before the three-match ODI series, jumped a place to overtake South Africa and claim the third spot with 103 points. On the other hand, Zimbabwe stayed 11th, but lost two points to find themselves at 61, still 10 points clear of twelfth-placed Ireland. 

As one of the hosts for the upcoming ODI World Cup, Zimbabwe don't have to rely on ODI rankings to secure qualification. 

Position

Team

Matches

Points

Rating

1

India 

33

3841

116

2

New Zealand

35

3809

109

3

Australia 

32

3304

103

4

South Africa

31

3192

103

5

Pakistan 

32

3215

100

6

Sri Lanka

36

3470

96

7

England

31

2898

93

8

Afghanistan

28

2565

92

9

Bangladesh

39

3251

83

10

West Indies

34

2624

77

11

Zimbabwe

18

1096

61

12

Ireland

16

815

51

13

Scotland

28

1260

45

14

Netherlands

30

1309

44

15

USA

26

1035

40

16

Namibia

23

685

30

17

Nepal

33

939

28

18

Oman

24

658

27

19

United Arab Emirates

27

473

18

20

Canada

22

194

9

Note: Rating is the ratio between points and matches. Australia’s rating happens to be 103.25, followed by South Africa’s 102.96, both of which are rounded off to 103.

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