Cricket World® Players Of The Week - Afridi & Taylor

Cricket World® Players Of The Week - Afridi & Taylor

Shahid Afridi celebrates a successful week.

©Action Images / Scott Heavey Livepic

Cricket World® Players Of The Week - Afridi & Taylor

Claire Taylor hits the winning runs for England.

©REUTERS/Philip Brown (BRITAIN SPORT CRICKET) Picture Supplied by Action Images

Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi and England Women batter Claire Taylor have been named as the Cricket World® Players Of The Week after they played key roles in leading their sides to ICC World Twenty20 glory on Sunday.

Afridi's explosive batting first helped Pakistan reach the final when his innings of 51 and a brace of wickets against South Africa helped set up a seven-run victory at Trent Bridge. Semmingly a different player at number three in the order, he came into bat against Sri Lanka in the final at Lord's and played a sublime innings of 54 not out, including two sixes and the winning run as Pakistan sealed a remarkable win.

He had earlier chipped in with a wicket to finish the tournament with 176 runs and 11 wickets.

Taylor, meanwhile, finished the women's tournament as the player of the tournament and was only one run behind leading run-scorer Aimee Watkins (200) as she helped England continue their run of success.

Also leading with the bat from number three in the order, she scored a brilliant unbeaten 76 against Australia in the semi-final as England coolly chased down 164 to win with three balls to spare.

After England had bowled New Zealand out for 85 in the final, Taylor was again there at the end, scoring an unbeaten 39 which also included the winning hit, a straight four, to seal England's second world title of the year on the back of their World Cup success in Sydney, for which Taylor also earnt the player of the tournament award.

Other contenders for the award included Katherine Brunt, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Shoaib Malik and Watkins.

© Cricket World 2009

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