Dubai [UAE], January 28 (ANI): New Zealand star Melie Kerr has been honoured with the coveted Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy for the ICC Ladies’s Cricketer of the 12 months because the standout participant of 2024, edging out high contenders Laura Wolvaardt, Chamari Athapaththu, and Annabel Sutherland to say the celebrated award in ladies’s cricket, in accordance with the Worldwide Cricket Council (ICC).
Kerr was excellent in all three aspects of the sport all year long, setting the usual for world-class all-rounders. Her brilliance within the discipline lifted New Zealand repeatedly, and she or he was one of the harmful leg-spinners on this planet, appearing because the White Ferns’ go-to strike bowler.
With the bat, Kerr was the rock in New Zealand’s line-up, able to taking part in expansive knocks to construct on robust begins or appearing as a stabilising pressure to anchor the innings if the openers did not fireplace.
The Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy was first awarded in 2017 and has been shared between three gamers since then, with Australia’s Ellyse Perry, India’s Smriti Mandhana and England’s Nat Sciver-Brunt every successful the award on two events.
Kerr turns into not solely the primary New Zealander to win the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy, but in addition the primary Kiwi to win the general ICC Ladies’s Cricketer of the 12 months in any guise.
Kerr’s spotlight of 2024 got here on the ICC Ladies’s T20 World Cup the place she was named the Participant of the Event and gained the Participant of the Match award in opposition to South Africa within the closing as New Zealand’s ladies gained their first ICC T20 World Cup.
In 9 One Day Internationals throughout the yr, Kerr scored 264 runs at a median of 33, and she or he additionally bagged 14 wickets within the format.
It was in T20 Internationals the place her performances earned her the Cricketer of the 12 months award. In 18 T20Is in 2024 she scored 387 runs at a median of 24.18 and bagged 29 wickets, a nationwide document for a single calendar yr.
Kerr’s 15 wickets on the ICC Ladies’s T20 World Cup made her the match’s main wicket-taker and is the most important haul ever by a bowler at a Ladies’s T20 World Cup.
She regularly bought opponents’ key batters out all through the match, together with the prized scalp of Deandra Dottin within the semi-final in opposition to West Indies and two of South Africa’s high three, Laura Wolvaardt and Anneke Bosch within the closing.
The 24-year-old saved her finest for final with the bat on the ICC Ladies’s T20 World Cup, scoring 43 from 38 to high rating throughout each groups within the closing.
Kerr anchored New Zealand’s innings, coming in throughout the second over and departing within the penultimate one having performed a key position in lifting the Kiwis to a match-winning complete of 158/5.
She adopted up these batting efforts with a superb catch and stand-out figures of three/24 with the ball, together with two wickets in an over to show the tide in New Zealand’s favour after a powerful Powerplay from the Proteas openers.
Kerr’s all-round brilliance deservedly earned her the Participant of the Match award within the closing, capping off a exceptional yr of particular person excellence. (ANI)
