Matt Renshaw scores maiden ODI century, Nathan Ellis takes five wickets in first-clash win over hosts

Updated September 16, 2026 — 11:40am,first published September 16, 2026 — 2:27am

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Matt Renshaw’s dad is trying to sell a book that he has written for cricket coaches.

“He’s the biggest cricket nuffy I know,” Renshaw wrote on Instagram this week. “It covers all the principles and games that we did when I was a kid and still do now [at] training.”

There is no mention on the cover – or the back – that Ian Renshaw is indeed the father of an incumbent Australian cricketer.

But as far as timing goes, his son’s first international century in nearly a decade on Tuesday in Zimbabwe won’t do sales any harm.

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Renshaw’s 109 from 94 balls at the Harare Sports Club, which helped Australia to a 59-run victory over Zimbabwe in the opening ODI of the series, came at No.6 against a modest attack and with the visitors wobbling at 4-107 in the 18th over.

After bringing up his 50 from 55 balls, Renshaw put his foot down. An array of powerful aerial shots down the ground carried him to his maiden ODI hundred 31 balls later and Australia to 8-294.

Nathan Ellis (5-31) then helped bowl Zimbabwe out for 235 in 45.1 overs before Renshaw’s day out took another unlikely turn as he snared the wicket of Brendan Taylor with a gentle off-spinner that was scooped to long-on.

Of all the international centuries a cricketer dreams of making, one against Zimbabwe in an irrelevant ODI is nowhere near the top of the list.

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But for Renshaw, ripping off an Australian helmet and raising his bat again carried plenty of symbolism.

“I probably didn’t think I was going to play one-day cricket,” Renshaw said. “Batting at six, you’re probably not expecting to get a hundred. If you do, it’s probably slogging.

“I was just playing my game. I know I play my best when I am nice and relaxed.”

Almost a decade after announcing himself as one of Australian cricket’s brightest prospects, Renshaw is preparing for another crack at the toughest format of the game that he is yet to conquer.

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The big question is whether he can kick on and churn out big runs as Australia’s opener in a three-Test series against South Africa, starting on October 9 in Durban.

Jake Weatherald’s axing last month, after Australia’s dismal Test defeat to Bangladesh in Darwin, has handed Renshaw the keys at the top of the order against the same nation he made his international debut against 10 years ago in Adelaide.

Later that summer, as a 20-year-old, Renshaw cracked 184 against Pakistan at the SCG. Australia appeared to have found its next long-term opener, a towering Queensland left-hander in the mould of Matthew Hayden.

Later that year, Renshaw was dropped.

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He was parachuted back into Australia’s XI in Johannesburg in 2018 for the Test immediately after the Sandpapergate scandal and has been in and out since.

His past 10 Test innings – 5, 4, 22, 8, 5, 5*, 0, 2, 2 and 8 – read more like lottery numbers than the returns of a player about to open the batting for Australia in such a crucial series.

Now 30, Renshaw is a far more rounded player than the youngster who was given a baggy green. His white-ball game, in particular, has come on enormously, culminating in ODI and T20 international debuts since October last year.

But Test cricket remains the unfinished business.

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Facing Zimbabwean spinners at both ends through the middle overs of an ODI is considerably different to seeing off a red ball in South Africa against fast bowler Marco Jansen and potentially Kagiso Rabada, pending his recovery from a hamstring injury.

“It’s obviously a very different role,” Renshaw said of his opening duties. “It’s something I am trying to prepare for as well as I can. Mindset is the biggest thing. It’s about trying to get as much rhythm as you can before that Test series.”

Australia had three Test representatives in their opening ODI: Renshaw, Travis Head (4) and Alex Carey (27).

For the fourth innings in a row, including his three Test knocks against Bangladesh, Head chopped a ball back onto his stumps. It is becoming a bizarre trend for one of Australia’s most destructive batters.

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Tom Decent is the chief sports writer for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X or email.

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