DTVHINDI
The International Cricket Council (ICC) today announced Sri Lankan players Dunith Velalage and Harshita Samarawickrama as the ICC Player of the Month for August 2024. This time two Sri Lankan players were successful in winning this award in the men’s and women’s categories. Although this award was started many years ago, but till now it has happened only once when two players (men and women) from the same country have been successful in winning this award.
The only previous instance of players from the same country winning this ICC award in the same month was when Jasprit Bumrah and Smriti Mandhana were named Players of the Month in June this year. Talking about Dunith Velalage, she performed brilliantly in the home ODI series against India and Samarawickrama performed brilliantly for his team on the Ireland tour.
Dunith Velaleg had an all-round performance in the series against India
Velalage beat South African spinner Keshav Maharaj and West Indies pacer Jayden Seals. Meanwhile, Samarawickrama beat Ireland’s Orla Prendergast and Gabby Lewis. Sri Lanka won the ODI series against India 2-0. Velalage was the Player of the Series in this series. This 31-year-old left-handed batsman scored more than 100 runs in two matches.
In one match, he was successful in scoring 67 not out and 39 runs in the other match. He also got 7 wickets, including a five-wicket haul. He is the fifth Sri Lankan player to win this award. Earlier, Angelo Mathews (May 2022), Prabhat Jayasuriya (July 2022), Wanindu Hasaranga (June 2023) and Kamindu Mendis (March 2024) have won this award.
Harshita Samarawickrama had a great performance against Ireland
Talking about Harshita Samarawickrama, she scored 151 runs in two T20 International matches in Dublin. After this, she managed to score 172 runs in the ODI series, which also included a century. She is the second Sri Lankan female player to win this award. Before her, Sri Lankan captain Chamari Atapattu won it three times. She won this award in September 2023, May 2024 and July 2024.
