South African opener Janman Malan and Pakistan pacer Fatima Sana were on Sunday named as the rising players of the ICC for 2021 in the men’s and women’s categories respectively.
Named in ICC’s ODI XI of the Year, Malan scored a brilliant run with the bat in 2021, scoring 715 runs in 17 international matches at an average of 47.66 and a strike-rate of 101.85, including two centuries and three fifties. He played a total of eight ODIs and nine T20Is in the year, but it was the 50-over format where he showed his true potential.
Their journey began with a T20I series in Pakistan, followed by another ODI and T20I series against the same side at home. At the end of those two series, he had already shown his potential to the world with two outstanding innings of 70 and 55 at Centurion.
But his moment of fame came when he scored an unbeaten 177 against Ireland in Dublin, the fourth highest score by South Africa in ODIs. He then played another scintillating innings of 121 runs against Sri Lanka in Colombo thus ending the year on a good note.
Malan’s most memorable innings was an unbeaten 177 against Ireland. He completely focused on a song that day and played some great shots around the field. Be it a spinner or a fast bowler, he treated them with equal disdain.
His innings included a total of 16 fours and 6 sixes, which explains how the bowlers suffered in that match. The 25-year-old made a scintillating 225-run opening stand with Quinton de Kock, who also scored a century in that match.
In the women’s section, 20-year-old Fatima impressed everyone with her all-round efforts, taking 24 wickets at 23.95 and scoring 165 runs in 16 international matches at 16.50. She became an integral part of Pakistan’s ODI and T20I team due to her ability to take wickets as a bowler and add easy runs down the order at the same time.
Apart from playing at home, Sana toured Bangladesh, West Indies, South Africa and Zimbabwe, showing excellent all-round performances. In fact, 18 of his 24 wickets in the year came in the 11 matches he played against the West Indies.
Fatima showed a lot of power against the attacking West Indies batsmen and was able to keep them away. Batting at number 8, he registered unbeaten scores of 28, 22 and 17 against strong teams like West Indies, South Africa and Zimbabwe respectively.
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