Star allrounder caps a year to remember with maiden Belinda Clark Award days after scoring a Test ton on her home ground
Sutherland caps stellar week with maiden Belinda Clark Award
Annabel Sutherland has marked her rise to the upper echelon of world cricket with her maiden Belinda Clark Award, capping a dream week that also saw her make history as the first woman to have her name etched onto the MCG Test centuries honour board.
Sutherland was crowned Australia's best women's cricketer from the past year at the Australian Cricket Awards on Monday night, polling 168 votes to win by 25 and deny Ashleigh Gardner a third award in four years.
The 23-year-old allrounder's epic 163 on day two of the Ashes Test match was her second Test century of the voting period and lifted Australia to a 16-0 sweep of England in the multi-format series.
The right-hander began the 12-month period with a brilliant 210 against South Africa at the WACA Ground in February, with her third Test century last Friday in just her sixth match putting her alongside champions Betty Wilson and Jill Kennare as the equal most for an Australian woman.
Sutherland's 373 runs in two innings and five wickets across those two Tests cemented her status as a red-ball force and helped clinch her place at the top of the Belinda Clark Award leaderboard where votes polled in Test matches worth twice those from ODI fixtures, and three times the T20I votes.
Sutherland finished ahead of Gardner on 143 but the off-spinning allrounder didn't go home empty handed after taking out the Women's ODI Player of the Year.
Beth Mooney, who joined Sutherland on the MCG honours board on Saturday following her maiden Test century, finished in third on 115 votes and was also crowned the Women's T20I Player of the Year.
Mooney ended the voting period from January 10, 2024, to February 2, 2025, as Australia's leading run-scorer (1163 at 44.73) across the three formats, but it's Sutherland's four centuries (three more than any other player) that stands out from the past 13 months.
To go with her two Test centuries, Sutherland also struck consecutive ODI centuries against India and New Zealand in December.
At 23, she already has more international centuries than Ellyse Perry and is one of the youngest to win the Belinda Clark Award behind former captain Meg Lanning, who won it consecutively aged 21 and 22 in 2014 and 2015.
Following in Perry and Lanning's footsteps, Sutherland stepping in at No.3 in the Ashes Test after the champion allrounder's hip injury meant she could fill her regular top-order spot at the MCG.
Sutherland also had a big impact with ball in her 33 matches across all three formats, finishing the voting period with the fourth most wickets for Australia (34 at 20.82) behind Gardner (45), Alana King (40) and Megan Schutt (35).
Gardner, who struck her maiden ODI century in the third Ashes ODI, won the 50-over award for the first time, while Mooney claimed her third T20I Player of the Year gong, the most of any Australian woman since the award's inception in 2019.