At 24, Rachin becomes youngest to win Sir Hadlee Medal

CHRISTCHURCH: Rachin Ravindra and Amelia Kerr emerged as the winners of the top honours at the New Zealand Cricket Awards ceremony on Wednesday evening. Ravindra, 24, became the youngest player to win the Sir Richard Hadlee Medal, awarded to the best New Zealand men’s cricketer of the year.

It caps off a remarkable time for Ravindra, who won the Young Player of the Year award at high school in 2016. On the other hand, Amelia was honoured with the coveted Debbie Hockley Medal – awarded to New Zealand’s women cricketer of the year, for the second consecutive time.

Ravindra shone at the Men’s ODI World Cup in India, finishing as the competition’s fourth leading run-scorer with 578 runs at 64, scoring three centuries and two half-centuries, including an unbeaten 123 in the tournament opener against England in Ahmedabad.

Those performances were recognised in January, when he was named the recipient of the prestigious ICC Emerging Player of the Year award. The all-rounder continued his meteoric rise in the Test arena, registering New Zealand’s highest-ever maiden Test century with 240 during the first Test against South Africa at Bay Oval.

He went on to play a key role in New Zealand’s first ever Test series victory over South Africa. Ravindra also shone on the T20I stage, featuring in 14 of New Zealand’s 26 T20Is over the season and scoring a blistering 68 from 35 balls in the first T20I against Australia at Sky Stadium.

On the other hand, Amelia was also named the Women’s ODI and T20I Player of the Year and took the Super Smash Women’s Player of the Year. The leg-spinning allrounder was the side’s leading ODI run-scorer with 541 runs at an average of 67, notching her third and fourth centuries along the way.