Cricket World Player Of The Week - Mushfiqur Rahim

Over the past seven days six players have recorded their maiden international centuries, while Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim notched up his and his country’s maiden Test double hundred.

It is Rahim’s history-making effort that earns him the Cricket World Player of the Week award. The diminutive right-hander hit exactly 200 - beating the previous highest-score by  a Bangladesh batsman, set minutes earlier by his team-mate Mohammad Ashraful. Rahim and Ashraful also broke the Bangladesh record for most runs added for any wicket, beating the 200 that Tamim Iqbal and Junaid Siddique put on in 2010. They were also largely responsible for their side passing their previous highest Test total of 556, with Nasir Hossain’s subsequent 100 also helping.

Staying in Galle, Lahiru Thirmanne and Dinesh Chandimal had earlier completed their maiden Test hundreds in Sri Lanka’s seemingly insurmountable total of 570 for four. Kumar Sangakkara also reached three figures during that innings. Thirimanne went onto make his highest first-class score, reaching 155 by the time Sri Lanka declared.

The first Test in Dunedin between England and New Zealand was also a high-scoring affair on a belter of a pitch. Aside from England’s first innings aberration, 881 runs were scored for the loss of just 15 wickets as Alastair Cook, Nick Compton and Hamish Rutherford all hit hundreds. Compton and Rutherford’s tons were their first in Test cricket, while tail-ender Steven Finn hit his maiden first-class fifty on the final day to underline the docile nature of the surface. In fact the only bowler to impress consistently was Neil Wagner, who returned match figures of seven for 183.

The first of five One-Day Internationals between South Africa and Pakistan saw a century for Colin Ingram and some excellent change bowling from Ryan McLaren and Rory Kleinveldt as the home side won easily.

And finally, in the world of Associate cricket, Afghanistan advanced their claims to be part of the 2015 World Cup by beating Scotland in two ODIs. Kyle Coetzer hit his maiden century in the second match, but that was overshadowed by a good all-round display from Afghan leg-spinner Samiullah Shenwari. In the first match, former Afghan captain Nawroz Mangal also hit his maiden ODI hundred.

© Cricket World 2013