14 The Independent . the Diaspora ’ s Multicultural Voice February 28 2017
Sports
WI stars cop World T20 awards
Carlos Brathwaite and Hayley Matthews ' careerdefining innings in the men ' s and women ' s World T20 finals were voted the best T20 batting performances of 2016 at the ESPNcricinfo Awards , announced today . Ben Stokes won the Test batting award for his 198-ball 258 in Cape Town , the second-fastest Test double-century , while his team-mate Stuart Broad won the Test bowling award for a second year running .
Quinton de Kock ' s 178 - an innings that kick-started South Africa ' s 5-0 whitewash against Australia at home - was named the ODI batting performance of the year .
South Africa were the opposition that Sunil Narine destroyed on his comeback , with 6 for 27 in Guyana , which was voted the ODI bowling performance of the year .
The ESPNcricinfo awards honour the best batting and bowling performances across the international formats of the game in the preceding calendar year . The jury for this year ' s awards included Ian Chappell , Mahela Jayawardene , Courtney Walsh , Mark Butcher , Ramiz Raja , and ESPNcricinfo ' s senior writers and editors .
On the night when Brathwaite hit four consecutive sixes to give the West Indies men their second World T20 title , 18-year-old Matthews made her maiden T20I half-century - the highest score in a Women ' s World T20 final - and was instrumental in West Indies winning their first global title after failing to qualify for the final on three previous occasions .
New Zealand offspinner Leigh Kasperek won the women ' s T20 bowling award for her 3 for 13 in a sixwicket win in a World T20 group game against Australia in Nagpur .
The men ' s T20I bowling award went to Bangladesh ' s Mustafizur Rahman , who took five New Zealand wickets for 22 runs with his cutters in a World T20 game in Kolkata .
Last year Mustafizur was named the debutant of the
year - a category voted on by ESPNcricinfo ' s users , in addition to the jury . This year that honour went to another young Bangladesh bowler - Mehedi Hasan , who took a record 19 wickets in his debut Test series , against England .
Broad , who won last year for his phenomenal 8 for 15 in the Trent Bridge Ashes Test , took home the award this year for his series-sealing spell of 6 for 17 , which razed South Africa for 83 runs in Johannesburg .
Afghanistan dominated the nominations in the Associates categories and bagged both batting and bowling awards . Opener Mohammad Shahzad for his 118 in an 81-run win against Zimbabwe in Sharjah ; it was not only Afghanistan ' s first T20I century but also the highest score by a player from an Associate nation against a Full Member . And offspinner Mohammad Nabi for a miserly 2 for 16 ( including three maidens ) off ten overs in a two-wicket win against Bangladesh in an ODI in Mirpur .
Virat Kohli was named captain of the year , for India ' s unbeaten run in Tests in 2016 , including a series win in the West Indies and a 4-0 win over England at home . Out of 12 Tests last year , India won nine and drew three . Kohli ' s personal batting form remained exceptional all through ; he averaged nearly 76 in the 12 Tests and scored three double-hundreds .
" The ESPNcricinfo Awards are about meaning and context ," Sambit Bal , editor-in-chief of ESPNcricinfo , said , " so we are chuffed a ten-ball innings sits beside a score of 258 in the list of winners . There is delight and irony in the fact that these two performances belong to Carlos Brathwaite and Ben Stokes , whose names will be forever entwined for those dramatic four balls in the World T20 final . It ' s also our great pleasure to introduce winners from women and Associates cricket in the tenth year of the awards . We should have had them earlier , but it ' s not too late to make amends ."
Carlos Brathwaite and Hayley Matthews starred in West Indies ' World T20 wins
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