On paper, it couldn’t feasibly be categorised as a contest.

Even without their premier batter Greg Chappell, whose ongoing neck injury saw him withdraw from the 1983 World Cup on tournament eve, Australia fielded a team strewn with all-time greats – Dennis Lillee, Jeff Thomson, Rod Marsh, Allan Border and Kim Hughes.

And their teammates Kepler Wessels, David Hookes, Graham Yallop, Geoff Lawson and Rodney Hogg would scarcely be viewed as ‘second-string’ in any outfit.

Contrastingly, their opponents that June Thursday were representing a nation born barely three years earlier when Zimbabwe declared independence and as a collective had never before set foot upon the verdant turf of Trent Bridge, where their historic first international had been fixtured.

There was a certain symbolism this first game of the ICC’s third global showpiece tournament should be staged on the same day Britons went to the polls, such was the backdrop of political change against which the 1983 World Cup was played.

Having witnessed their neighbour gain re-acceptance to international sport after 15 years of isolation as Rhodesia, South Africa had begun actively recruiting players from England, West Indies and Sri Lanka for rebel tours they hosted in the early 1980s.

Of even greater geo-political significance would be India’s unforeseen unseating of the previously infallible West Indies in the subsequent Cup final, which forever changed the dynamic between red and white-Ball cricket, and irrevocably shifted the game’s power base.

But even allowing for the stunning triumph of Kapil Dev’s 40-1 outsiders at Lord’s in the final, the tournament opener played a fortnight earlier in Nottingham stood as the most remarkable boilover of that World Cup and one of the least likely results in four decades since.

Australia’s preparation mirrored the shambolic state of the men’s team that remained riven by the World Series Cricket (WSC) divide that had been repaired just years earlier, and through the scarcely concealed antipathies that existed within the group with the lightning rod being skipper Hughes.

The disarray was best exemplified by fast bowler Lawson, who had missed Australia’s preceding tour to Sri Lanka due to ankle problems and university exams and then honed his game by bowling into an empty net in near darkness on Sydney winter evenings before departing for the World Cup.

By the time Australia’s 14-man squad arrived in the UK in late May, speculation was rife 33-year-old Lillee would call time on his celebrated Test career during the tournament as he struggled to regain fitness and full pace following knee surgery during the previous home summer.

Reports also emerged that the fast bowler refused to travel to training or matches in the same vehicle as Hughes, so badly had their relationship deteriorated.

More alarm bells sounded when the 1975 World Cup finalists – whose only win at the 1979 event came against Canada due to the loss of their star players to WSC – were bowled out for 122 in their first warm-up game against county outfit, Sussex.

In a portent for what awaited, Australia’s powerful batting line-up was wrecked by German-born part-time bowler (and occasional wicketkeeper) Ralph Cowan, whose 5-17 from 8.5 overs differed starkly to a career first-class return of nine wickets at almost 90.

Furthermore, hopes that Thomson might redress his spate of no-balls in a subsequent warm-up match against New Zealand were dashed when that fixture at picturesque Arundel Castle was abandoned after a 15-minute hailstorm covered the playing field in ice.

But neither of those factors, nor Hughes’s ongoing batting woes – he scored just 29 runs from four innings leading into Australia’s Cup opener against Zimbabwe – prevented bookmakers installing his team as 11-2 fourth favourites for the trophy behind West Indies (4-5), England (7-2) and Pakistan (5-1).

Zimbabwe carried notional odds of 500-1, although by the time play got underway at Trent Bridge that market had blown out to 1000-1 and bookies were soon refusing to accept any bets, so unlikely was the prospect of them beginning their international cricket journey with victory over Australia.

The mood within the rank outsiders camp, however, was decidedly different.

While Australia seemed convinced reputation and experience would get them past the game’s newest challenger, Zimbabwe had thrown all their limited resources and more into ensuring they gave a good account on their proudest day.

They enlisted former Springboks rugby centre-turned fitness guru Ian Robertson to oversee their physical preparation and he drove the players relentlessly in the months leading into the World Cup.

The squad of amateurs, some of whom took jobs as bouncers at Harare’s casinos to make ends meet, would train together during week-day lunch breaks as well as evenings and Saturday mornings before turning out for their respective clubs on Sundays.

In addition to their demanding workload, the players worked tirelessly to raise funds for their World Cup adventure and in addition to running raffles, peddling merchandise and sourcing sponsorships, they took turns to produce home-baked goods for a fortnightly cake stall.

Not only did their sense of shared purpose contrast sharply with Australia’s fractured unit, Zimbabwe’s inaugural captain was a man who not only embodied the fierce work ethic that characterised his team but revelled in the role of leader.

Duncan Fletcher, who would return to haunt Australia as England’s coach in the fabled 2005 Ashes series, convinced his men they could compete against the world’s best if they recognised their batting and bowling limitations and improved the skills rival teams regularly ignored, such as fitness and fielding.

“Duncan took over and really changed things from what had been an amateurish group of good players playing first-class cricket who liked a nice beer before the game, a nice beer after the game, and a few gentle nets,” future Zimbabwe captain and current head coach Dave Houghton recalled.

The Africans might not have experienced international cricket prior to their 1983 debut, but they had an idea of what to expect from English conditions given their ICC Trophy triumph a year earlier.

They also undertook a low-key series of warm-up games that included fixtures against a Birmingham League XI and a Minor Counties team before their first meetings with established outfits, where they were duly bowled out for 91 (by Derbyshire) and 72 (Sri Lanka) in practice matches.

It’s therefore understandable that openers Ali Shah and Grant Paterson were ashen-faced and unable to speak upon taking their first look at Trent Bridge to learn Zimbabwe had been sent into bat and they were to face the brunt of Australia’s feared four-pronged pace attack.

Fletcher had tried to prepare his top-order for what was to come by employing baseball pitchers to pepper them with head-high fast balls in the Harare practice nets, but facing up to Lawson, Hogg, Lillee and Thomson on an early June pitch in Nottingham was an altogether different proposition.

Until Shah and Paterson prepared to head to the middle shortly before 10.45am that Thursday, Zimbabwe’s build-up had been as quietly relaxed as Australia’s had been haphazard.

The greatest source of anxiety had been the pre-tournament teams’ function at Buckingham Palace, where Zimbabwe’s 17-year-old batting prodigy Graeme Hick reputedly greeted Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II with a protocol-busting ‘hi’ before partaking of the gratis champagne and cashew nuts.

Their opponents’ chaotic preparation continued into match day when Lillee, who had been left out of the XI for one of the warm-up games, was told he would not be required for the tournament opener.

“In the nets on the morning of the game, I vented my anger by bowling for a good hour flat out and giving the lads a hard time,” he wrote in his autobiography ‘Lillee’.

“About 10 minutes before the start, while still letting them fly, I was suddenly informed I was playing.

“I was livid, having spent all that energy bowling my guts out in the nets.”

Despite the discord, and even though Zimbabwe’s openers saw off Lawson and Hogg’s initial salvo to post a 55-run first-wicket stand, the game looked to be following its expected course when Lillee took the ball and removed both men with consecutive deliveries.

Not that the great fast bowler’s demeanour had softened from his morning spat.

Soon after being brought on as first change, Lillee induced a miscued hook from Paterson who watched the ball fly towards fine leg as he took off for a run and accidentally brushed the Australian’s elbow as he jogged past.

Lillee apparently warned his rival if he did it again, he would break his arm. But Paterson underscored Zimbabwe’s refusal to be intimidated when he repeated the episode a short time later and responded to another bout of Lillee’s gratuitous advice by telling him to “wind his neck in”.

However, it wasn’t Lillee or Thomson (who began his spell with four wides down leg side) who inflicted most damage but Australia’s combined ‘fifth bowlers’ Yallop and Border, who shared three wickets with their respective medium pace and spin to have Zimbabwe 5-94 at lunch.

The dismissal of Houghton for a first-ball duck had brought another flash point, with the Zimbabwe keeper of the view his rival gloveman Marsh had dropped the catch off Yallop in his haste to throw it skywards in celebration, only to be told by the Australian fielders who encircled him to be on his way.

Despite losing the top half of his line-up in the morning session, Fletcher resolved to bat through the allotted 60 overs (as World Cup games were) and found an ally in 23-year-old allrounder Kevin Curran, whose sons Sam and Tom would go on to represent England.

The pair put on 70 for the sixth wicket before Fletcher was joined by belligerent hitter Iain Butchart, who helped lift the total to 6-239 with 34 from 38 balls including a brutal strike back over Thomson’s head that hit the Trent Bridge sightscreen and sent morale soaring in the Zimbabwe rooms.

Fletcher, who had been missed at mid-on as Australia turfed at least five chances in the field, finished unbeaten on 69 from 84 balls through a hybrid of stoic defence and occasional flashes of power through and over the off-side.

While Australia had undertaken virtually no reconnaissance on Zimbabwe – Wessels was the only source of insight, given his experiences against some of their players in South Africa’s domestic Currie Cup – the underdogs began their bowling innings with very clear plans.

The surfeit of left-handers in Australia’s batting – six of the top seven, including keeper Marsh – coupled with the capacity to stack six fielders on the leg side (despite the introduction of 30-yard fielding restrictions for the first time in World Cups) yielded a simple strategy.

Zimbabwe’s ploy was to bowl full and into the pads of Australia’s batters with the leg-side stacked, thereby denying them width to flay the ball through the off-side and with the gentle swing of seamer Vince Hogg and off-spin of John Traicos ensuring outside edges were also occasionally threatened.

Then there was the even more modest medium-pace of Fletcher, who was able to move the ball back into left-handers but also landed yorkers with admirable accuracy and consistency.

The blueprint hit an early hurdle when Vince Hogg – who had endured much confusion with his Australian new-ball namesake and regularly fielded phone calls for Rodney at the teams’ shared hotel – was forced from the field with a back injury having conceded just 15 runs from his first six overs.

In his absence, Australia’s openers Wessels and Graeme Wood slowly found their feet and fashioned a half-century opening stand that seemingly had their team on track for a comfortable win.

But Fletcher had Wood caught behind shortly before Hughes holed out to a diving catch by Shah at backward square leg for a duck, and slowly but surely the favourites were being squeezed.

Traicos, born in Egypt to Greek parents, was the prime strangler and although he did not snare a wicket, his 12 overs cost a miserly 27 runs due to his immaculate line as Hookes (20 off 48 balls), Yallop (2 off 17) and Border (17 off 33) battled to break the shackles.

Even though he had been belted for six sixes in an over by fellow Zimbabwean Brian Davison in a World Cup warm-up match against Leicestershire, Traicos was a canny operator with an effective arm ball perfected in the seven Tests he played for South Africa prior to their isolation.

Australia’s flailing efforts were further stymied by the almost manic zeal with which Zimbabwe’s fielders hurled themselves around the turf to save runs, with one of the most effective being spring-heeled ex-hockey international Gerald Peckover, who had replaced the injured Hogg.

It wouldn’t be the last time a substitute fielder deployed by Fletcher earned fame against Australia at Trent Bridge. 

But it was Zimbabwe’s deceptively avuncular vice-captain Jack Heron who pulled off the most decisive act in the field, when the 34-year-old swooped on the ball Border pushed to point and threw down the stumps from side on with Australia’s most productive batter Wessels (76 off 130) well short of his ground.

“Jack was an amazing athlete, and as a schoolboy he was a 40m runner, 100m runner, a great hockey player, and he had a bullet arm,” Houghton told Cricinfo in 2015.

“Jack ran guys out regularly, because the opposition all thought he was the old guy in our team.

“We used to call him the grey fox”.

Border tried to lift the scoring rate but was caught on the boundary rope by Andy Pycroft, and when Lawson fell for a duck soon after, the enormity of what was unfolding began to crystallise for both teams.

Marsh remained 50 not out in a last-gasp effort to haul Australia across the line, but as defeat loomed his disgust at the day’s events became increasingly evident.

Sadly, no official footage of that 1983 World Cup game exists because the BBC – host broadcaster of the event – was in the midst of industrial action which meant cameras weren’t at the ground as history unfurled.

Which, from Australia’s perspective, was the day’s only positive result.

When the 13-run victory was achieved, the heroes were mobbed by a small contingent of Zimbabwe fans who were present as the players themselves oscillated between shock and euphoria.

Fletcher was deservedly named player of the match for his unbeaten 69 and 4-42 with the ball, in the only international competition he would ever play.

Australia might have helped fast-track Zimbabwe’s development by sending an under-25 team there for matches earlier in 1983, but Dirk Wellham (skipper of that squad which also included Dean Jones, David Boon, Wayne Phillips and Mike Whitney) was baffled as to how more credentialled batting succumbed so meekly.

“I can’t see how Fletcher snared the wickets of Hughes, Hookes and Yallop with his rather ordinary right-arm medium pacers,” Wellham told newspapers in Australia as the post-mortem began.

If Zimbabwe’s players, officials and supporters suddenly believed they would make an immediate impact on international cricket, they were quickly disavowed of any such illusion.

Defeats came in their five remaining matches at the 1983 World Cup, including a 32-run loss in the return bout with Australia in Southampton, and it would be almost a decade before they again celebrated an ODI win.

That was an equally famous occasion – a nine-run triumph over former colonial masters, England, in Albury in the 1992 World Cup.

For Australia, the fall-out was immediate and profound.

Within six months of returning home, having again failed to reach the play-off rounds of the showpiece tournament, Marsh, Lillee and Greg Chappell announced their retirements from international cricket.

By 1985, the riches on offer to play in still-banned South Africa lured a number of Test-capped Australia players including Hughes, Yallop and Hogg as well as Wessels, who would eventually lead the nation of his birth when they returned to international cricket in 1992.

That was also the year Zimbabwe were finally awarded Test status, with their maiden match staged at Harare Sports Club where photographs from that famous day at Trent Bridge, accompanied by a giant copy of the scorecard, adorned the clubhouse walls.

There’s some neat symmetry in the fact Zimbabwe’s only other international win over Australia also took place at that venue in Harare – in August 2014, which was the most recent ODI between the teams, whose historic rivalry resumes in Townsville next Sunday.

Other memorable Australia-Zimbabwe ODIs

December 1994, WACA Ground (Perth) – Australia won by two wickets

So concerned was the then Australian Cricket Board that Zimbabwe wouldn’t be competitive in the annual ODI tri-series, they took the unprecedented and controversial step of adding an Australia A team to the competition that also included England. Zimbabwe responded by almost humiliating the senior Australia outfit in the tournament opener, as Mark Taylor’s men stumbled badly in pursuit of 167 and literally limped across the line with two wickets in hand thanks to injured Mark Waugh, who batted with a runner at No.9.

June 1999, Lord’s (London) – Australia won by 44 runs

On the 16th anniversary of the 1983 boilover, the teams again met in a World Cup fixture with Australia having shakily reached the Super Six round and no sure thing against a strong Zimbabwe line-up. A 129-run stand between Mark Waugh (104) and his twin brother Steve (62) lifted Australia to an imposing 4-303, but a blazing unbeaten 132 from Zimbabwe opener Neil Johnson seemed to have his team on track for another upset until Paul Reiffel’s three quick wickets quelled their charge.

February 2001, WACA Ground (Perth) – Australia won by one run

Back at the scene of their near-triumph in 1994, Zimbabwe faced an unprecedented pursuit of 303 after home-town hero Damien Martyn celebrated his installation as Australia’s opener by carrying his bat for 144 (off 149 balls). But despite losing a wicket in their first over, Zimbabwe came within a run of posting what would have been the greatest successful ODI run chase in Australia thanks to opener Stuart Carlisle’s 119, Grant Flower’s 85 and tailender Doug Marillier’s unorthodox heroics against Glenn McGrath in the final over.

August 2014, Harare Sports Club (Harare) – Zimbabwe won by three wickets

Australia’s woes in this match of a tri-series tournament (also featuring South Africa) began at selection when they opted not to pick leg-spinning allrounder Steve Smith and instead went with a four-pronged pace attack on a demonstrably spin-friendly pitch. Then, with strike bowler Mitchell Johnson rested and skipper Michael Clarke hobbled mid-innings by a badly torn hamstring, Australia were unable to make regular inroads into Zimbabwe’s batting as they chased a modest 210. It took a fighting, unbeaten eighth-wicket stand of 55 between skipper Elton Chigumbura (52) and spinner Prosper Utseya to see their team home, with Utseya unleashing riotous celebrations among local when he clubbed Mitchell Starc for six to secure the unlikely win.

Men’s Dettol ODI Series v Zimbabwe

Sunday Aug 28: Riverway Stadium, Townsville, 9:40am

Wednesday Aug 31: Riverway Stadium, Townsville, 9:40am

Saturday Sep 3: Riverway Stadium, Townsville, 9:40am

Buy #AUSvZIM tickets here