The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Monday (December 13) announced the winners of the Player of the Month award for November 2021 for both men’s and women’s cricketers.
Australia’s David Warner beat Pakistan’s Abid Ali and New Zealand pacer Tim Southee to win the men’s ICC Player of the Month award, while West Indies all-rounder Hayley Matthews was adjudged the women's ICC Player of the Month for November 2021.
While Warner was nominated for the first time, Matthews was nominated for the second time, having been nominated in July 2021 along with her West Indies women's captain, Stafanie Taylor, who was adjudged the women's ICC Player of the Month at that time.
Well, coming to Warner, the explosive opener had an impressive outing in the recent T20 World Cup 2021, where he smashed 53 in the final against New Zealand after scoring 49 in the semifinal against Pakistan.
Warner was also named the Player of the T20 World Cup for amassing 209 runs at an average of 69.66 and a strike rate of 151.44 in 4 T20Is in the tournament in the UAE.
Russel Arnold, a member of the voting panel to the ICC, stated: “David was back to his scintillating best during the T20 WC and his aggression at the top of the order was outstanding. His 209 runs at a strike rate of 151 in four innings simply tell the story. There was no recovering from the early onslaught by Warner and his stroke play was pleasing to the eye.”
Meanwhile, Matthews of the West Indies won the award over Pakistan's Anam Amin and Bangladesh's Nahida Akhter for her outstanding performance in November 2021.
Matthews scored 141 runs and grabbed 9 wickets at an average of 13.11 during the period. She starred in a three-match ODI series win over Pakistan, scoring 57 runs and taking three for 31 in the first match before returning with another impressive figure of 4/26 in the second match.
She scalped 2 wickets and scored 9 runs against Ireland Women in the ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifier last month.
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Irfan Pathan, another member of the voting panel member, said: “Hayley was the star of the tournament, performing with both bat and ball. Her all-round performance was one of the reasons the West Indies won against Pakistan, and she deserves to be the women’s Player of the Month.”
Notably, former players, prominent journalists, and global cricket fans choose the winners of the monthly awards. The selection process for the monthly awards started in January of this year.
(With PTI Inputs)
