Sunday, September 23, 2007

AFRIDI TOPS PLAYER OF THE TOURNAMENT TABLE, YUVRAJ SINGH IN HOT PURSUIT


Shahid Afridi leads the race for the Player of the Tournament award but tomorrow's final of the Twenty20 World Cup gives Yuvraj Singh, lone Indian in hot pursuit, yet another chance to pip the Pakistani to the honour.

Afridi has so far polled seven votes to top the table, but there are still four players -- including three of his teammates Misbah-ul-Haq, Younis Khan and Shoaib Malik -- who can catch up with him.

Yuvraj, along with Stuart Clark, Sanath Jayasuriya and Morne Morkel, has garnered six votes.

Afridi is the joint leading wicket-taker -- alongside Australia's Stuart Clark -- with 12 victims, and has also scored rapidly whenever he has reached the batting crease, making 91 runs from just 45 balls faced.

In contrast, Yuvraj's 134 runs came from just 57 balls, giving him the best batting strike-rate of any player with 75 runs or more 235.08 runs per hundred balls.

His total includes 12 sixes, seven during his 16-ball innings of 58 against England that included six maximums in one over from Stuart Broad, and another five in his 70 from just 30 deliveries against Australia in the semi-final.

Malik (187) and Misbah (175) are among the leading run-scorers in the tournament and only Matthew Hayden of Australia, with 265 runs, has more than Malik's total.

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