Double delight for Fleming at NZ awards
From the New Zealand Herald, 1 April 2004
Stephen Fleming was named player
of the year at New Zealand Cricket's awards dinner in
Auckland last night.
The New Zealand skipper won the
Walter Hadlee Trophy for one-day international batting
and also collected the supreme player of the year award.
His only miss came when he was
surprisingly pipped for the Redpath Cup for first-class
batting by New Zealand team-mate Scott Styris.
The award period stretched back
to the tour of Sri Lanka last May when Fleming scored
his magnificent career-best 274 not out against the
spin wizardry of Muttiah Muralitharan in the heat of
Colombo.
He also scored 192 in the first
test against Pakistan in Hamilton and added two match-winning
one-day centuries, both in Christchurch, against Pakistan
and South Africa.
In the award period Fleming, who
is 31 today, played nine tests, scoring 732 runs at
56.31, and 21 one-day internationals, notching up 728
runs at 38.31.
Styris won the Redpath Cup with
an average of 45 from nine tests, with his consistency
throughout the year perhaps swaying the judging panel
of Sir Richard Hadlee, Gavin Larsen and John F. Reid.
Styris hit two test centuries and
three half-centuries in the past year - 119 against
India in Mohali and a career-best 170 against South
Africa in Auckland last month.
He also finished strongly, averaging
80.25 in the just-completed test series against South
Africa, while Fleming tailed off with 101 runs from
five innings in the series.
Paceman Chris Martin topped his
magic March by winning the Winsor Cup for first-class
bowling after snaring an outstanding 53 first-class
wickets for the season.
He finished with 18 wickets at
16.66 from just four innings in the series against South
Africa after a 22-month absence from test cricket.
Injured paceman Daryl Tuffey headed
off Jacob Oram for the Walter Hadlee Trophy for one-day
international bowling, taking 34 wickets at 27.09 from
23 matches.
Oram's forgettable tour of India
may have counted against him as he was the best one-day
bowler during the home season with 16 wickets, averaging
28 and 4.3 per over against South Africa, and 20.62
and 3.36 per over against Pakistan.
In domestic cricket, Chris Harris
was rewarded for his prolific State Championship season
for Canterbury - 580 runs at 58 and 17 wickets at 16.41
- with the State Medal.
Central Districts allrounder Aimee
Mason won the women's equivalent State Plate.
In women's cricket, Canterbury
players won both major awards, with Haidee Tiffen taking
the Ruth Martin Cup for batting and Rebecca Steele winning
the Phyl Blackler Cup for bowling.
The Bert Sutcliffe Medal for services
to cricket went to former test captain and national
selector Graham Dowling, also a former secretary of
the New Zealand Cricket Council. |
