Ali beat Bangladesh's Shakib Al Hasan and Namibia's David Wiese to the men's award, while Delany pipped teammate Gaby Lewis and Zimbabwe's Mary-Anne Musonda to the women's prize.

Ali scored 52 runs without defeat across three matches for Pakistan in October at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, scoring at a strike rate of 273.68.

He first grabbed headlines at the tournament by blasting 27 not out from 12 balls to help Pakistan defeat New Zealand.

The next game saw Pakistan needing 24 runs off the final two overs against Afghanistan before Ali stepped up to hit four sixes in the penultimate over to win the game.

"Helping your team to win, especially from the jaws of defeat is what makes Asif Ali special," said ICC Voting Academy member Irfan Pathan.

"And he did that not just once but twice.

"Although he scored considerably less than the other two nominated players, the contribution he made and the pressure situations from where he snatched the victories made all the difference."

Ireland captain Delany shone in their 3-1 One Day International (ODI) series win over Zimbabwe.

The all-rounder flourished with bat and ball, scoring 189 runs and taking four wickets.

"Laura has been playing international cricket for over a decade and has the difficult task of captaining her country, which carries a great weight of expectation," said ICC Voting Academy member Lisa Sthalekar.

"I have been following her career ever since I played alongside her in the Gordon Women’s Club in Sydney and watched her development.

"This recent series was a breakout series for her as she was able to register her highest ODI score and is a worthy recipient of the ICC Women’s Player of the Month for October."