Kohli reclaims number one ODI batting ranking

Melbourne, Feb 11: Opener David Warner received Allan Border Medal, while all-rounder Ellyse Perry bagged Belinda Clarke medal in the 2020 Australian Cricket Awards on Monday.

Warner secured his third (2016, 2017, 2019) Allan Border Medal and Perry a trio of Belinda Clarke Awards (2016, 2018, 2019) as voted by their peers, umpires and the media across all forms and every game of international cricket in 2019.

Warner dominated the ICC World Cup with 647 runs including a highest score of 166 at an average of 71.88, including three centuries. He then rebounded from a challenging Ashes series to dominate at home in the T20I series against Sri Lanka and Pakistan, the Test series against Pakistan - which included his memorable innings of 335 not out in Adelaide - and the Test series against New Zealand.

Warner (194) outpolled Ashes hero Steve Smith by a single vote for the Allan Border Medal with paceman Pat Cummins, the ICC International Cricketer of the Year, third in the polling with 185 votes.

Perry enjoyed an incredible year with both bat and ball, starting with dominant Ashes performances which included an innings of 116 in the Test in Taunton and 11 wickets in the three ODIs.

Her figures of 7-22 at Canterbury were the best ODI figures by an Australian woman's player. She backed that up against the West Indies by taking 3-17 in the opening ODI and then scoring 112 not out in Antigua before finishing the year with a solid series against Sri Lanka at home. Perry (161) was a comfortable winner of her third Belinda Clarke Award from Alyssa Healy (153) and Jess Jonassen (87) taking second and third place respectively in the voting.

Breakout batsman Marnus Labuschagne's superlative Test summer and Ashes series secured him the Male Test Player of the Year. Having replaced Steve Smith as a concussion substitute in the Lord's Test, Labuschagne went on to make 353 runs at 50.42 in the Ashes.

His outstanding form continued at home with a first-up 185 against Pakistan at the Gabba and a Test high 215 against New Zealand in Sydney. He scored 347 runs at an average of 173.5 against Pakistan and 549 runs at 91.5 against New Zealand. Limited overs captain Aaron Finch (38) capped a stellar year by being voted the Men's One-Day International Player of the Year ahead of Usman Khawaja (33) and Warner (24).

Finch's year included a massive series against Pakistan in the UAE with 451 runs at 112.75, including knocks of 116, 153 not out and 90. He then dominated the World Cup with 507 runs at 50.7, including 153 against Sri Lanka and 100 against England at Lords. Warner (19) continued his magical year in the T20I game to become the Men's T20 International Player of the Year from Glenn Maxwell (16). Kane Richardson and Steve Smith (8) tied for third.

Alyssa Healy claimed top honours as the women's One-Day International Player of the Year with 39 votes ahead of Perry (33) and Jonassen (19). Healy scored a double by also claiming the women's T20 Player of the Year with 18 votes, ahead of Jonassen and Meg Lanning who were tied on 15. It was the second consecutive year that Healy has won the women's ODI and T20 Awards.

West Australian veteran Shaun Marsh was voted Men's Domestic Player of the Year with 1322 runs at 52.88 in all forms of the game, including the highest score of 214, while breakout paceman Wes Agar was named the Bradman Young Cricketer for his 41 wickets at 22.62 in the year.

Molly Strano and Tayla Vlaeminck took the prized Women's Domestic Player of the Year and Betty Wilson Young Cricketer of the Year awards respectively.

Strano took 28 wickets in 22 games while Vlaeminck's 19 wickets for the year reinforced her enormous potential.

Former Hobart Hurricane Corrine Hall was named Community Champion for her work as an Ambassador of the Kindness Factory, grassroots cricket, and upcoming book Victress, which features 35 iconic female athletes and their stories. Each portrait is accompanied by the athlete's story, with a particular focus on how kindness impacted their journey.

The awards for international cricket are based on votes from players, umpires and the media on a 3-2-1 basis from each match. For the domestic awards, the votes are collected from all players.

New Delhi, Jan 31: Indian women's team captain Rani Rampal on Thursday became the first-ever hockey player to win the prestigious 'World Games Athlete of the Year' award.

The World Games announced the winner on Thursday after 20 days of polling by sports fans world-wide.

"Indian hockey superstar Rani is The World Games Athlete of the Year 2019! Huge congratulations!," the World Games said in a statement.

"With an impressive number of votes, 199,477, Rani is the clear winner of the Athlete of the Year race, where sports fans all over the world have voted for their favourite during 20 days of polling in January. All in all, over 705,610 votes were cast during the poll," it added.

Last year, India won the FIH Series Finals, and Rani was named Player of the Tournament. Under Rani's leadership, the Indian women's team qualified for just the third Olympic Games in its history.

"I dedicate this award to the entire hockey fraternity, my team and my country. This success has only become possible with the love and support from hockey lovers, fans, my team, coaches, Hockey India, my government, friends from Bollywood, fellow sportspersons and my countrymen who have continuously voted for me," said Rani, who was recently named among the Padma Shri awardees.

"Special thanks to FIH for nominating me for this prestigious award. Thank you to The World Games Federation for this recognition," she added.

Rani further said after a successful 2019, she is now looking forward to achieving greater heights with the national team in 2020, which also happens to be an Olympic year.

"It is my privilege and honour to win this award. It is always nice when your country recognises your effort. It is even better when the international sports community recognises it. Thank you so much to everyone who voted for me," she said.

"2019 was a great year for our team because we qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. As a team we want to make 2020 a great year!"

Rani, who has been a member of the national team since she was a 15-years-old, currently has more than 240 caps for India.

"Rani is an inspirational athlete, and a role model for many in India. It was amazing to see the support the Indians, even as high up as Mr Rijiju, the Minister of State, Youth Affairs and Sports, gave to her in this vote together with the Hockey fans all around the world. This is what sport is about: uniting people from different backgrounds and different countries," said International World Games Association President Jose Perurena.

The International Hockey Federation also congratulated Rani on being named for the award.

"Congratulations @imranirampal for becoming the first ever Hockey athlete to win the prestigious @TheWorldGames Athlete of the Year award!" the FIH, who nominated Rani for the award, said in its twitter handle.

"On behalf of FIH and the global hockey community, I would like to extend our warmest congratulations to Rani for having been voted The World Games Athlete of the Year 2019. This is an acknowledgement of her outstanding performances - together with her team-mates - and her dedication to hockey and her leadership," FIH CEO Thierry Weil said.

"This prestigious Award is also a great recognition for hockey globally. Furthermore, we are working hard for and looking forward to having Hockey 5s as a demonstration sport at The World Games 2021."

Congratulating Rani, Hockey India President Mohd Mushtaque Ahmad said, "This is a very proud moment for all of us. She is the first Indian athlete to win this award and through her achievements Rani has been able to draw a lot of attention towards women's hockey. Many people are aware of the team's recent accomplishments and I am confident this team is capable of winning larger goals and I wish Rani and the team best of luck this Olympic Year."

There were initially 25 nominees, male and female nominated by their respective sports federations, which was later reduced to 10 in the final round of public voting.

The FIH has recommended Rani's name for her outstanding performances and her ability to lead by example.

Karate star Stanislav Horuna of Ukraine was second behind Rani with over 92,000 votes and Canadian powerlifting world champion Rhaea Stinn was third.

Melbourne, Mar 6: Experienced middle-order batter Veda Krishnamurthy believes that "destiny" is in favour of first-time finalist India to win their maiden ICC Women's T20 World Cup title provided they get a grip on their nerves in the summit clash against Australia on Sunday.

India will have a psychological advantage going into the final as they had stunned the defending champions by 17 runs in the tournament opener.

The Harmanpreet Kaur-led India reached the final on the basis of their unbeaten record in the tournament after their semifinal against England was washed out on Thursday.

Krishnamurthy, who was a part of the Indian team that finished runner-up to England in the 2017 Women's ODI World Cup, knows the pain of missing out on a world title.

"It's all about destiny, and I'm a big believer in destiny. I feel like this is the way it was meant to be. There is a joke going around that this World Cup is made in such a way that it's helping us, starting from the wickets to everything else," she was quoted as saying by the tournament's official website.

"Being in the final is just reward for the way we played in the group stages. There was an advantage to having won all our games with the weather not in our hands."

The team's first target of reaching the final having achieved, the 27-year-old player said the Indians now need to hold their nerves and remain focussed leading up to the big day on Sunday.

"We said the first aim was to get to the final and take it from there. We've crossed the first stage. We need to make sure we hold our nerves and we do what we need to do on the final day," she said.

India's recent rivalry with Australia has taken fascinating twists and turns, with Kaur's outfit chasing down 173 in their recent tri-series, then getting home by 17 runs in the T20 World Cup opener.

But all is not hunky-dory for Krishnamurthy on the personal front. Considered a great finisher, she has recovered from a series of single-digit scores in the tri-series to score 20 from 11 balls in a finishing role against Bangladesh.

Having amassed just 35 runs from four matches in the tournament so far, the Karnataka batter knows her role in the team.

"As an individual, the role given to me is very consistent in the last year. They've put the effort in the last year to keep me there and I've been supported by every individual, not just one or two. The entire team, with all the support staff, have shown faith in me," she said.

"I know coming into the World Cup, I would play a crucial role to finish the innings well, which I felt I was unable to do in the last World Cup in the West Indies," she added.

Krishnamurthy said specific roles have been set for every player of the squad and they all are trying to contribute as much as they can to help the team achieve its goal.

"I was very motivated to do my role and I've been working on that. It's not just me, all 15 players involved know what their role is," she said.

"I'm happy we're all putting in efforts and executing our role properly. Even if it's a smallish contribution of saving a couple of runs, it's all panned out really well."