2024-09-16 20:55:46
ICC awards men’s and women’s cricketers based on their performance every month. However, Sri Lanka has won both this time. Dunith Vellalaghe was awarded the player of the month for August in the male category. Harshita Madhavi won this award in the women category.
All-rounder Vellalaghe won the award after a brilliant performance against India at home. In this journey, he left behind Keshav Maharaj of South Africa and Joyden Sills of West Indies.
Vellalag’s all-round prowess helped Sri Lanka win their first ODI series against India at home since 1997. He scored 108 runs with the bat and took 7 wickets with the ball. He scored a career-best unbeaten 67 runs with the bat in the first ODI. Then he took the wickets of Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill with the ball. He scored 39 runs with the bat in the second ODI. Couldn’t take advantage of the bat in the third ODI. But he bowled career best with the ball and took 5 wickets for only 27 runs. During this time he took the wickets of Kohli, Rohit and Shreyas Iyer.
Before Vellalag, Sri Lanka’s Angelo Mathews (May, 2022), Prabhath Jayasuriya (July, 2022), Wanindu Hasaranga (June, 2023) and Kamindu Mendis (March, 2024) won the ICC Massera Award.
But this is the first time that Sri Lanka has won the ICC Massera Award in both men’s and women’s categories.
Women’s cricketer Madhavi won the Massera Award beating Ireland’s Orla Prendergast and Gabby Lewis. Bahati was a top-order batsman who performed brilliantly against Ireland in August. He scored an unbeaten 69 in the first three-match T20I, an unbeaten 86 in the second and 65 in the third. Then he scored 19 in the first ODI series, 105 in the second and 48 not out in the third.
On this tour, she became the third Sri Lankan woman cricketer to score a century in ODIs after Chamari Atapattu and Viswi Gunaratna.