ICC announces nominees for Women's T20I Player of the Year, Smriti Mandhana included

DUBAI: The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Thursday announced England cricketers Tammy Beaumont and Nat Sciver, Indian opener Smriti Mandhana and Ireland's Gaby Lewis as the nominees for the ICC Women's T20I Player of the Year.

In a year that saw India win only two of the nine T20Is, opening batter Smriti Mandhana was one of their few bright spots. She played a major role in the first of the two wins, smashing 48 off just 28 balls against South Africa, chasing 113 in the final T20I. The win saved India the blushes, as they managed to avoid the sweep.

Mandhana was India's top run-scorer in the T20I series against England with 119 runs but didn't find enough support from the rest of the batters. She was India's top-scorer in both the matches that India lost, including a 51-ball 70 that went in vain in the final T20I.

Overall, Smriti scored 255 runs in nine matches at an average of 31.87 with two half-centuries.

Meanwhile, Ireland all-rounder Gaby Lewis also had a smashing 2021 in the shortest format of the game, finishing as the second-highest run-scorer in T20Is this year. She scored 325 runs at 40.62 in 10 T20Is with a strike rate of 128.45, with one century and a half-century. IANS

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