Along with the Men’s side, the International Cricket Council (ICC) has revealed the list of women’s players for the emerging award in the ongoing year 2024. The first on the list is the star-qualified teacher to be the cricketer for South Africa, Annerie Dercksen, who has smashed 161 runs and five wickets in 17 T20Is, besides collecting 60 runs in two Tests, followed by 70 runs and six wickets in four ODIs.
Since making his debut in 2023, it took Dercksen less than two weeks to earn a spot in the squad of the South Africa side for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup at home. She wasn’t part of the event, but in 2024 played a huge role in them reaching the final.
In one of the most memorable performances, she had only one chance in the T20I series against Pakistan before the women’s World Cup 2023 but counted with a standout performance. In the series decider, when they were facing a challenge of 154 runs, Dercksen came into the spotlight with the help of an unbeaten 44 runs in 23 balls, thanks to six boundaries and two sixes.
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The second, in the list of the ICC awards is Saskia Horley from Scotland. She collected 142 T20I runs in ten fixtures and 276 in five ODIs, besides picking 12 wickets across the two formats. Her cricketing journey started with nothing short of a fairytale, as he was coached by the global star, Ellyse Perry.
Shreyanka Patil becomes the only Indian to make the ICC award cut
Horley kicked off the year with a colorful show, thanks to his half-century and three wickets during the ODI tri-series against Papua New Guinea and the United States of America (USA). Her impact extended into the Women’s ICC T20 World Cup, where she made a quick mark with three wickets against Bangladesh.
One of the memorable moments for her was the first-ever ODI centurion for Scotland in the women’s game, but she took a step further and ended with a four-wicket haul in the same fixture, proving her immense all-round stability. In the opening game of the tri-series in the Netherlands, she played a composed knock of 100 runs in 121 balls, with the help of 12 boundaries, which posted 258/6 on the board– their highest in the ODI cricket.
The third player on the list for the ICC award is India’s Shreyanka Patil, who ended with 15 wickets in 13 T20Is and four wickets in two one-day internationals. She made the history of becoming the first Indian to be part of the Caribbean Premier League in 2023.
Patil has featured in a bilateral series against Australia, Bangladesh, and South Africa, as well as in the major events in the Women’s T20 Asia Cup and the ICC T20 World Cup. Primarily known for his bowling, Patil has also contributed as a lower-order batter.
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Shreyanka finished with 2/14 in their second game against Pakistan in the T20 World Cup, which helped them to restrict the opponents to 105/8.
The fourth and final player in the list of ICC awards is Freya Sargent from Ireland, who picked up 13 ODI and seven T20I wickets in the year 2024. With a very rich cricketing legacy of the family, Freya is the latest to carry it forward at just the age of 18.
She delivered with a career-best figures of 3/29 in the first ODI of the year against Zimbabwe. She has also done a great job against the top sides. The memorable moment of the player came against England, when she ended with figures of 3/30, besides effecting a run-out.