A Player of the Match or the Man of the Match award is an honour that’s given to a player after the end of the game, recognizing his/her match-defining performance. However, we also have examples in the past when an entire team has won the M.O.M award for a single game. In this article, we take a look at three occasions when the entire team was awarded the Man of the Match award in a cricket game.
Player of the Match in cricket
The Player of the Match award is an important prize in cricket. At the end of an encounter, it is important to identify a player for his/her good performance. At times, more than one player performs well in a game and the deciders have a difficult time in choosing the M.O.M. There have been several instances of one or more players sharing the award in the past. However, only three times has an entire team shared the award. We take a look at the three instances in this article.
The entire team was awarded the Man of the Match award
An entire Test team has won the Player of the Match only on one occasion. This happened when West Indies toured South Africa in 1998/99. In the fifth Test, South Africa won the game by 351 runs. Almost every South African had an impact on the result. Those who failed in the first innings found success in the second. Hence, all the team members shared the prize.
In the year 1996, two teams achieved this feat. Both were in the ODI format. In April, New Zealand beat West Indies by 4 runs in a low-scoring encounter. With the bat, most failed, but with the cherry, there were six different wicket-takers for the Kiwis. The performance on the field, too, was sensational. Hence, all of them shared the award.
In September of the same year, Pakistan won the honour against England. Pakistan’s bowling attack helped restricted England to 246 in the first innings. In the chase, almost every Pakistan batter contributed and helped the team win by two wickets. Hence, the team won the M.O.M award.
