Australian opener David Warner scooped his third Allan Border medal in five years at the annual Australian Cricket Awards, pipping fellow run machine Steve Smith by a solitary point. The latter secured 193 points in a voting system that includes players, umpires and the media as the panel, while Warner, who absolutely lit it up in the home Test series, as well as the World Cup, finished with 194.
Australian cricket’s most prestigious individual award returned to the explosive batsman less than a year after he served his ban for the Sandpaper Gate incident. Not all went well for the 33-year-old in the longer format, as Warner only scraped 95 runs in 10 Ashes innings, often falling prey to Stuart Broad’s late-swinging deliveries with the brand new cherry.
During the time frame between January 9, 2019, to January 8, 2020, Warner amassed a whopping 1815 runs at an average of 69.81. His closest rival for the award – Smith – scored 1553 runs at 62.12.
Warner returned to the Australian summer with a bang, scoring a stellar century against Sri Lanka in the T20I at Adelaide, steering his side to a massive 134-run victory. A Test cricket best score of 335 followed against Pakistan, with records tumbling all along the way.
Delivering an emotional speech following his snare, he said:
“I’m taken aback by this It’s been quite challenging. It’s hard to put a finger on where I should start. But as I said before, I want to thank Cricket Australia for that opportunity. The work that you guys did, I think was absolutely fantastic and I thank you again for that.”
Reflecting on the calendar year from his perspective, Warner added:
“It’s just been remarkable to come back. With the World Cup, to not go the whole way was disappointing. The Ashes, retaining that was fantastic – I obviously didn’t turn up and I apologise for that – but I really had the hunger and determination to come back and do the best for our team. To come back and have a summer like that and just contribute, it really put a smile on my face and I hope it did for you guys as well.”
Meanwhile, talismanic all-rounder Ellyse Perry claimed the Belinda Clark medal for her stupendous displays with both bat and ball throughout 2019.
Here’s the full list of honors at the Australian Cricket Awards –
Allan Border Medal: David Warner
Belinda Clark Medal: Ellyse Perry
Men’s Test player: Marnus Labuschagne
Men’s ODI player: Aaron Finch
Men’s T20I player: David Warner
Men’s domestic player: Shaun Marsh
Men’s Young player: Wes Agar
Women’s ODI player: Alyssa Healy
Women’s T20 player: Alyssa Healy
Women’s domestic player: Molly Strano
Women’s young player: Tayla Vlaeminck
Community champion: Corinne Hall
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