[samanth]

Tendulkar and Bracewell take top awards

Sachin Tendulkar and Doug Bracewell have won the Test batting and bowling awards in the fifth annual ESPNcricinfo Awards, announced today.

Tendulkar's 146 in Cape Town early in 2011 came in testing conditions and in the face of some sublime swing bowling by Dale Steyn. Bracewell won in his debut year in international cricket, for his 6 for 40 in New Zealand's historic seven-run win against Australia in Hobart.

Another first for the awards was the victory of an Associate player - Kevin O'Brien, who got votes from 13 out of the panel of 16 jurors, for his nerveless century in Ireland's historic win over England in the World Cup . The ODI bowling award didn't emerge from the global tournament, though there were five World Cup performances among the nominees. Mitchell Johnson won it for his six-wicket haul in Pallekele during Australia's tour to Sri Lanka.

The awards were decided by a 16-member jury that included former players Ian Chappell, Ian Bishop, Ramiz Raja, Kepler Wessels, Geoff Boycott, Martin Crowe, Sanjay Manjrekar and Russel Arnold, and ESPNcricinfo's senior writers. The jurors were asked to pick their top three performances in each category from a shortlist of nominees.