Melbourne: Australian captain Steve Smith on Monday bagged the prestigious Allan Border medal for the second time, capping off what has been a wonderful 12 months for the right-hander.
Considered to be one of the best with the bat in the country since Don Bradman, Smith won the award with 246 votes to his name, ahead of teammate and two-time medal winner David Warner (162 votes) and Nathan Lyon (146 votes).
He had won his first medal three years ago in 2015 and was also named Australia’s Test Player of the Year for his terrific performance with the bat in the last 12 months. He was a favourite to win the medal, after 24 matches in both Test and limited overs’ cricket in the last one year where he scored a total of 1754 runs at an average of 67.46 with seven hundreds.
He is also the ICC Test Cricketer of the Year, an honour which he received last month.
Australian women’s all-rounder Ellyse Perry also stole the limelight by winning the Belinda Clark Award for the second time in her career. Having won her first medal in 2016, Perry was also named ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year last month.
The right-handed batswoman produced one of the finest knocks in women’s Test cricket when she scored an unbeaten 213 in the Day-Night Ashes clash against England in Sydney.
She amassed a total of 756 runs across formats in the last one year with 20 wickets at an average of 32.