Daryl Mitchell, Melie Kerr take the honours at NZ cricket awards

Daryl Mitchell and Melie Kerr bagged the top honours at New Zealand’s annual cricket awards in Auckland on Thursday, March 23.

Mitchell was the recipient of Sir Richard Hadlee Medal as the outstanding men’s cricketer of the year whereas Kerr won the inaugural Debbie Hockley Medal for being adjudged the outstanding women’s cricketer.

Mitchell also received the Redpath Cup for men’s first-class batting after a prolific year in Tests, which saw him aggregate four centuries and rise to No. 8 in the World Test batting rankings.

Kerr, who also won the Women’s T20I Player of the Year, delivered the goods with both bat and ball in the shortest format. She was her team’s second-highest run-scorer with 423 runs and joint second-highest wicket-taker with 17 scalps.

Tom Blundell, who amassed 849 Test runs at a glittering average of 60.64, including two centuries and six half-centuries, was named Test Player of the Year.

Suzie Bates and Michael Bracewell were named the ODI Women’s and Men’s Players of the Year respectively. While Bates came good against the West Indies and Bangladesh, Bracewell had a breakthrough year with the bat in ODIs, scoring 510 runs at 42.50 and his two hundreds including a scintillating 140 under pressure against India in Hyderabad.