Australia's two highest-ranked players lead the race for the new-look Belinda Clark Award ahead of the AB Medal
Lanning, Perry in close battle for BC Award
Australia captain Meg Lanning and superstar allrounder Ellyse Perry look set to battle it out for the new-look Belinda Clark Award at the Crown Lager AB Medal night on Monday.
Australia’s two highest-ranked players are expected to poll well after enjoying another stellar 12 months at the highest level, a time during which the Commonwealth Bank Southern Stars finished runners-up at the World T20 and claimed ODI series wins over India, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and South Africa – culminating in the team being named the inaugural winners of the ICC Women’s Championship.
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Throughout the Belinda Clark Award voting period, which encompassed 15 ODIs and 13 T20s, Lanning scored 761 runs in 15 ODIs at an average of 63.41, including back-to-back tons against New Zealand last February and a record-equalling ninth century against the Proteas in November.
In T20s, she scored 339 at 33.90, including three half-centuries.
Perry’s finished the 12-month span with a remarkable nine ODI half-centuries, two T20 fifties and an average in excess of 60 across both formats.
She also claimed 30 wickets across the two formats.
Other players expected to poll well include leg-spinner Kristen Beams, who enjoyed a breakthrough tour of Sri Lanka and carried that form into November’s ODI series against South Africa before being hit with a finger injury.
Beams took 27 wickets across both formats during the 12-month period, cementing her place as Australia’s go-to bowler during the middle overs of ODI innings.
Left-arm spinning allrounder Jess Jonassen has also continued to be a consistent presence with both bat and ball, taking 26 wickets, while Nicole Bolton had a strong year in ODIs, scoring 589 at 42.07 including one century and four fifties.
Whoever takes home the coveted award will be walking away with a different prize to previous years.
For the first time, Australia’s top women’s international cricketer will be presented with a medallion rather than the three-stump trophy awarded in previous years, with Cricket Australia unveiling the redesigned, teardrop-shaped medallion on Saturday.
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Perry took out the 2016 Belinda Clark Award while Lanning claimed the honour in 2014 and 2015.
The new-look Belinda Clark Award isn’t the only change this year, with two new categories introduced at the Allan Border Medal evening for women’s players.
Lanning seems set to be win the inaugural Women’s Domestic Player Award having averaged more than 70 with the bat in the Women’s National Cricket League and Rebel Women’s BBL competitions in the period from 5 December 2015 to 4 December last year.
And the maiden winner of the Betty Wilson Young Women’s Cricketer of the Year is tipped to be exciting 19-year-old New South Wales batter Ashleigh Gardner, who in 2015 became the first woman to be named Lord’s Taverners Indigenous Player of the Year.
Gardner, who is also a handy off-spin bowler, has starred with the bat for the Sydney Sixers during the current Rebel WBBL campaign and was named in the Governor-General’s XI squad after scoring a century against Sri Lanka for the Shooting Stars last year.
Australia’s leading run scorers across both formats
Meg Lanning: 1100 runs at 50.00 (100 x 3, 50 x 5)
Ellyse Perry: 1034 at 60.82 (50 x 11)
Nicole Bolton: 589 at 42.07 (100 x 1, 50 x 4)
Alex Blackwell: 532 at 40.92 (100 x 1, 50 x 3)
Elyse Villani: 393 at 26.2 (50 x 2)
Australia’s leading wicket takers across both formats
Ellyse Perry: 30 wickets at 23.06 (BBI 4-12)
Kristen Beams: 27 at 19.15 (BBI 4-15)
Jess Jonassen: 26 at 24.42 (BBI 5-50)
Megan Schutt: 24 at 23.75 (BBI 3-29)
Rene Farrell: 16 at 33.62 (BBI 3-17)