ICC Player of the Month: Sikandar, Stokes get nominated
The ICC has announced the nominees for both men's and women's Player of the Month for August 2022. Star Zimbabwean cricketer Sikandar Raza headlines the men's section. English skipper Ben Stokes and New Zealand's Mitchell Santner have been picked as well. Among women cricketers, Beth Mooney, Jemimah Rodrigues, and Tahlia McGrath have been nominated post their performance in the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Here's more.
Why does this story matter?
The International Cricket Council has been awarding the trophy since 2021. The voting panel for the same is constituted of journalists and former cricketers. Meanwhile, the public gets to account for 10% of the results. The Player of the Month trophy is handed to the male and female cricketer who has done exceedingly well in international cricket across formats for that given month.
Raza lights up Harare!
Raza, who has had an eye-popping run in 2022, found astounding success in August. The middle-order batter clocked three hundreds, with two of those versus Bangladesh. He was the Player of the Series against the Bangla Tigers, with 252 runs at 252.00. He also claimed five wickets at 29.20. Raza then bashed a 95-ball 115 against India in the final one-dayer but in vain.
Stokes guides England to an innings win
After a poor show at Lord's, Stokes led upfront in the innings win versus South Africa in Manchester. He claimed two wickets before hoarding a lip-smacking ton (103 off 163 deliveries) to get the hosts to 415/9d. The right-arm pacer then uprooted a dangerous-looking Rassie van der Dussen (41) to trigger SA's collapse. Stokes leads the scoring charts in the series (143), averaging 47.67.
Santner dazzles with all-round contributions
Santner had eventful returns on both batting and bowling fronts. Batting at number 3, the all-rounder tonked an awe-inspiring 42-ball 77* against the Netherlands in the 148-run chase (149/2). He excelled on the Caribbean tour, with six wickets in three T20Is at 10.67. He followed with four wickets in the one-dayers besides scoring 51 runs to be adjudged Player of the Series.
2022 CWG: Rodrigues was the dark horse in the tournament
Rodrigues finished with the second-most runs for India Women (146), averaging 73.00. She smacked a 46-ball 56* versus Barbados Women. She slapped a crunch 44* in the semi-final. Meanwhile, Australia's Mooney topped the scoring charts, with 179 runs at 44.75. She battered a match-winning 41-ball 61 against India in the final. All-rounder McGrath managed 128 runs and claimed eight wickets, averaging a mere 12.12.
