Sportskeeda Cricket Awards 2014: All-rounders of the Year
The year 2014 has seen many ups and downs in cricket. Teams and captains have tried different combinations and players in order to determine their best bets for the World Cup 2015, to be played in Australia and New Zealand starting February 14. Here is a compilation of the cricketers who made their mark this year with both bat and ball. A few names who narrowly missed out on being in the top 5 are Ravi Bopara, Darren Sammy, Moeen Ali, JP Duminy and Tillakaratne Dilshan.
#5 Thisara Perera
Overall Performance
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Thisara Perera continued to impress this year as well, and if we are to go by the Sri Lankan skipper Angelo Mathews’ recent statement, he will be an integral cog in the team’s wheel for the World Cup. What the 25-year-old brings to the table is very valuable, especially in limited overs cricket: he can win the game with his hitting from any situation and is super-handy with the ball with his knack for breaking partnerships at the crucial junctures of the game.
Best Performances
ODI
The 25-year-old’s first good performance of the year came against Bangladesh in an ODI in February, where he blasted a blitzkrieg 80 off just 57 balls to give Sri Lanka a fighting total on a day when every other batsman had failed. Sri Lanka ended the innings with a score of 180 on the board and managed to steal a 13-run win.
He was the Man-of-the-Series in the ODIs against Pakistan in August. The 2nd ODI of the series saw his best coming out, where he blasted 65 off 36 balls coming in at No. 8 and then claimed 3 wickets with his bowling. In the next ODI, he took 4/34 to help dismiss a hapless Pakistan for just 102.
In the final one-day match of the recently concluded ODI series against England, he hit the second-fastest Sri Lankan fifty, off just 23 balls, to help his team score 302.
T20
The Colombo-born’s best Twenty20 outing of the year came against England in May, in a match where he scored 49 off just 20 to give a late impetus to an innings that was threatening to fall apart. His contribution was crucial in what turned to be a low-scoring thriller. He also dismissed the England skipper Eoin Morgan for 5.