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Cricket World Players of the Week - Morne Morkel and Trent Boult

by Sandeep Shivam Tuesday 27 March 2018

South Africa' Morne Morkel and New Zealand's Trent Boult are the joint winners of the Cricket World Player of the Week Awards following their stunning bowling performance against Australia and England respectively.

Both the bowlers picked nine wickets apiece and were clinical in their teams winning their respective games in Auckland and Cape Town.

Boult pace and swing saw New Zealand dismiss England for 58 runs in the first innings and he was well sufinal pported by a four-wicket haul from Tim Southee. Boult's figures of 32 for six was also his career best figures and it included the prized scalps of Alastair Cook, Joe Root, Dawid Malan and Ben Stokes. The second innings wasn't easy for him though with the conditions easing up but still he snared three wickets and along with Todd Astle and Neil Wagner helped the Black Caps complete an innings victory and go 1-0 up in the series.

There were some strong performances with the bat with Kane Williamson scoring a record century while Henry Nicholls scorean unbeaten 145. Mark Stoneman, Root, Stokes and Chris Woakes scored half-centuries for England in the second innings but it went in vain.

The third Test between Australia and South Africa was marred by the ball-tampering scandal that broke out during with Steven Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft sanctioned.

Though there were some strong performances and it was led by Morkel, who picked four and five wickets in the two innings as the Proteas completed 322-run victory. The victory was set by Dean Elgar's unbeaten 141 in the first innings while AB de Villiers scored twin fifties. Bancroft, Aiden Markram and Quinton de Kock are the other batsmen to score half-centuries.

The ICC World Cup Qualifiers tournament saw Afghanistan win the tournament but Windies also managed to make it to the 2019 World Cup.

Brendan Taylor smashed 138 in the fifth game of the Super Sixes against Windies which also saw Evin Lewis, Shai Hope and Marlon Samuels scoring half centuries. Jason Holder picked a four-wicket haul.

The sixth game of the Super Sixes saw Rashid Khan claiming a five-wicket haul while Gulbadin Naib and Najibullah Zadran scoring 74 and 63 respectively.

Sean Williams scored a valiant 80 but Zimbabwe missed out on the final two place with UAE edging out by three runs. Mohammad Shahzad extended his dominance as he amassed 54 and 84 with the second one coming in final, that also saw Mujeeb claiming a four-wicket haul to set up the win for Afghanistan.

Islamabad United went on to clinch their second Pakistan Super League title beating Peshawar Zalmi in the final in Karachi riding on a blistering fifty from Luke Ronchi and a three-wicket haul from Shadab Khan.

The Eliminator 2 contest also saw Kamran Akmal, Joe Denly and Babar Azam scoring half-centuries but in the end Peshawar went on to win by 13 runs.

That concludes the performances of the week.