Namibia’s senior men’s cricket captain Gerhard Erasmus has been nominated for the International Cricket Council’s Player of the Month award for April.
Erasmus, who excelled for Namibia during their tour of Oman last month, has been nominated along with UAE batter Muhammad Waseem and Pakistan pace bowler Shaheen Afridi.
Erasmus was in great form in Oman last month as he made strong contributions with both bat and ball.
He produced two Player of the Match performances over the course of the five-match T20I series, with his first one coming in a narrow six-run loss in the second game of the series when the versatile all-rounder hit 58 from 56 deliveries and backed that up with a spell that netted three wickets for seven runs.
But Erasmus bettered that effort in the decisive fifth match that decided the series as he smashed six sixes when scoring a quickfire 64 from 29 deliveries and then made a pair of crucial breakthroughs as Namibia clinched the series with an emphatic 62-run triumph.
Muhammad Waseem (UAE)
The hard-hitting right-hander was in fine form last month as he scored the bulk of the runs at the ACC Premier Cup and helped himself to a third T20I century.
While Waseem started the month with a first-ball duck against Kuwait, the 30-year-old quickly found form at the top of the UAE batting order as he helped himself to innings’ of 65, 45 and 48 in three consecutive matches.
But Waseem’s highlight of the month came in the final of the ACC Premier Cup as he smashed six fours and a whopping seven sixes in making his third T20I century from just 56 deliveries and helping UAE to an impressive 55-run triumph over Oman.
Shaheen Afridi (Pakistan)
The Pakistan pace spearhead showed some excellent signs on the eve of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup as he finished as the leading wicket-taker in his side’s T20I series against New Zealand last month.
Shaheen picked up the only wicket in the rain-affected opening match of the series with the Kiwis and then followed that up with two eye-catching efforts in the second and fifth games of the series in Rawalpindi and Lahore.
The left-armer looked at his brilliant best when collecting figures of 3/13 to help bundle New Zealand out for just 90 in a Player of the Match performance in the second clash of the series and produced an even better game in the final contest of the series as Pakistan squared the series at two wins apiece.
In that decisive game, Shaheen took 4/30 in another Player of the Match effort and his eight wickets overall for the series ensured he also claimed the Player of the Series award. – icc-cricket.com
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