ICC Women’s Player of the Month nominees for May revealed

It’s never a huge surprise to see Sri Lanka’s skipper in lights, though it has been Athapaththu’s constant flow of runs, even with the responsibility of captaincy, that makes her individual feats all the more remarkable.

The heart and soul of Sri Lanka women’s team, Athapaththu again stepped up in May, making three strong scores across the T20I series win over Bangladesh, and a half-century against the same opponent in ICC Women’s Championship play.

After rain spoiled most of the ODI series, batting was tricky in Colombo, though the skipper showed her class in making 64 (60) with 10 boundaries, helping her side to 186 from their 30 overs in the truncated affair. Sri Lanka went on to win the match by 58 runs.

Athapaththu then motored at a strike rate of 132 for the T20I series, finishing with 103 runs at an average of 34.33

Harshitha Madavi (Sri Lanka)

Left-hander Harshitha Madavi has gone from strength-to-strength for Sri Lanka, with her exploits during May the latest proof.

The 24-year-old was a consistent performer with the bat in the 2-1 T20I series win over Bangladesh, also making 45* in the third ODI against the same opponents to ensure important ICC Women’s Championship points.

In the shorter format, Madavi excelled. After top-scoring with 45 in the first T20I, Madavi backed up the innings with a calm 29* to see her team to victory in match two, then raising her bat with a performance of 51* (42) in the third T20I that helped secure the series win.

Thipatcha Putthawong (Thailand)

The 19-year-old Thipatcha Putthawong continues to make waves in the Associate world, and delivered glory for her team through a South East Asian Games gold-medal campaign in Cambodia.

Continually troubling batters with her quicker left-arm orthodox, Putthawong claimed 11 wickets and was also incredibly economic, leading to a jaw-dropping stat line: not only was she the leading wicket-taker, she claimed her wickets at an average of just 1.54, conceding just 17 runs in 15.3 overs. That’s an economy of just 1.09.

Staggeringly, three of her spells ended with economy rates of under one, with figures of 1/9 against Indonesia somehow an outlier.

Putthawong’s 4/3 against the Philippines was her best performance, closely joined by 3/3 and 3/2 against Malaysia and Myanmar respectively.