Steve Smith bags 3rd Allan Border Medal, Beth Mooney wins maiden Belinda Clark Award
Steve Smith is currently the best batsman for Australia, across formats, while he is also among the top batsmen in the world in all forms. Owing to his prolonged success, he has once again been recognised as Australia's best, winning the Allan Border Medal for the third time.
FollowAustralian batsman, Steve Smith is undoubtedly one of the world's best batsman, across formats. Owing to his continued success over the years, Cricket Australia has recognised him as the country's best cricket, awarding him with the prestigious Allan Border Medal for the third time.
The award is based on votes, as Smith finished with 126 votes, ahead of Cummins (114) and Aaron Finch (97). With this win, Smith has levelled himself with David Warner, while Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke are the leaders, having won on four occasions.
As for 2020, Smith did not have the best of the year in the longest format, finishing sixth on the run-scorer list. However, he did well in the limited-overs, finishing second in the One-Day Internationals and Twenty20 Internationals. Overall, he scored 1,098 runs during the year.
Speaking on the win, Smith expressed his wonderment. "The past few days I have found something ... I have found my hands which I am extremely excited about. It's taken me about three-and-a-half or four months ... I had a big smile on my face after training, I walked past (assistant coach) Andrew McDonald and said, 'I've found them again'," he said, reports cricket.com.au.
ALSO READ:Â Ravichandran Ashwin reveals shocking details of Sydney bubble
"Theoretically, it is a simple thing, but it is just getting that feel and the look of the bat behind my toe the right way and the way my hands come up on the bat. It changes where you meet the ball to hit the ball in certain places. Just slight things and bits of rhythm aren't quite right," he added.
Meanwhile, Beth Mooney was adjudged as the best woman cricketer from the country, as she bagged the Belinda Clark Award, which was her first. Speaking on the same, she reckoned, "The biggest thing is belief. Your dream is to pull on the green and gold and I had plenty of people along the way who thought I could do it… but in the end, it comes down to whether I thought I could."
"It's been well documented, Matthew Mott had a pretty tough conversation with me four or five years ago, about the fact I could be one of the best players in the world if I wanted to. It probably took someone like him saying that for me to believe I could get to the top echelon of players around the world," the wicketkeeper-batswoman added while speaking on her evolution as a player.
