West Indian Taylor wins ICC Player-of-the-Month award for July

West Indies captain Stafanie Taylor continues her amazing showing on the international stage. The stellar all-rounder has been voted the winners of the ICC Player-of-the-Month for July 2021.

Taylor was the standout performer for West Indies in the CG Insurance ODI and T20I Series against Pakistan, in Antigua as she led the side to victory in both formats.

She was nominated for the award alongside team-mate Hayley Matthews and Pakistan’s Fatima Sana, but her all-round performance in the series helped her claim the most votes. In four ODIs, Taylor scored 175 runs with a strike-rate of 79.18 and a top score of 105 not out. She and also picked up three wickets at 27 apiece at an economical 3.72. She also picked up four wickets in the T20Is at 13, and a stunning economy of a mere 5.56 runs per over.

“This is a bit surprising to me, winning ICC Player of the Month award for July, but I’m happy. It shows that the hard work you put in, will pay off and it did, against Pakistan, to help us win that series. We played well in both formats,” Taylor said.

“I’m over in England now playing in The Hundred, which is a different kind of competition, played at a faster pace, but I’m still working hard. We’re also looking forward to the series against South Africa at home, and we will be looking to win that as well. I want to thank the fans for all their support, as it is always appreciated.”

During the visit by Pakistan, Taylor became the third player in women’s cricket history to make 8,000 international runs, achieving the feat in the fourth CG Insurance ODI. Only 30 years and 34 days old at the time, she is comfortably the youngest to ever do it, with England’s Charlotte Edwards 33 years old when she reached the milestone and Mithali Raj 34. The feat only further confirmed Taylor’s status as one of the most outstanding all-rounders in the game’s history.

Of Taylor’s runs, 4,929 have come in ODI cricket at an average of 44.80. That places her third for the most runs in the format in women’s cricket. She has also scored 3,121 runs in T20Is. She was also brilliant with her off-spin bowling in the third T20I against Pakistan as she helped her team to a 3-0 clean sweep, collecting figures of 4-17.

Three of those wickets came in consecutive deliveries as she became just the second player from West Indies to take a T20I hat-trick, after team-mate Anisa Mohammed, who achieved the feat against South Africa in 2018. Having earlier picked up the wicket of Fatima Sana, Taylor brought Pakistan’s innings to an early close by knocking over Aliya Riaz, Diana Baig and Anam Amin across three deliveries in the 20th over.

The captain went on to play a starring role in the chase too, scoring an unbeaten 43 off 41 balls to help West Indies mow down a target of 103 with six wickets and five balls to spare having at one stage been in trouble at 17-3. Taylor was at her best in the ODI arena in July, briefly reclaiming her spot at the top of the ICC’s batting and all-rounder rankings.

That came after an incredible performance in the series opener in which she took 3-29 with the ball before stroking an unbeaten century of 116 to seal the five-wicket win.

She started her day’s work by removing the well set Ayesha Zafar for 46, before trapping Aliya Riaz and Sidra Nawaz in front of the stumps to help keep Pakistan to 205-9 from their 50 overs.

With her team in a tricky spot at 42-2, she then notched her sixth ODI century, hitting 11 fours and two sixes to power the team to victory. She is now one of just 10 women to have scored more than five ODI tons. (windiescricket)