Nathan Lyon - The Best Cricketer of the Week

The more fatalist amongst us may believe that, in times of crisis, a hero emerges, Batman-like to save the day. The day after new Australian captain Tim Paine pledged to create an “environment where guys can come in and play cricket and just be themselves” it is perhaps fitting that the cricketer of the week goes to an Australian player who has been doing that for as long as he has been in the team. If you are looking for the sort of player to model the new Australian team on, Nathan Lyon might just be the guy for you. A guy who began at (very literally) grassroots level and has gone on to be one of the best spinners in Australian cricket history might find himself part of a leadership group that he appeared to not be part of in recent weeks. In the most turbulent of times he is a dependable figure. As all was falling around him during the third day of the third Test, Lyon did what he does best – and more. As well as claiming a five wicket haul he also bagged 47 late order runs from 58 balls in the first innings. He got out for a duck in the second innings – one of the toughest and most exposing team innings I can remember in Test cricket – however we are likely to see him continue as an ever more important part of this Australian cricket set up. His yield of 287 points sees him soar up the overall table and into fourth place – the highest Australian in the rankings.

To say that Jeetan Patel has also shot up the table is something of an understatement. For the longest period of time the veteran New Zealand bowler remained stagnant on 108 points . From there he has jumped into a four figure total quicker than any other player on our list. This is best shown in the below graph which shows just how his trajectory has been.

A similar trend can be seen in his position in our 24 man league. He debuted in week 2 with a 17^th place position, then dropped to bottom place with two players yet to play, He remained in this bottom position until Week 11 when he finished top of the pile and jumped up to 22^nd.  Last week he jumped up to 12^th and now he sits in 9^th position – one place above his ex-international team mate Kane Williamson. This burst up the table has come off the back of three matches where he has got at least a fivefer in every match.

Patel sits one place below a player whose fate has worked in an exact opposite trajectory. Indian superstar Virat Kohli sits in a very pretty 8^th position in our overall chart – despite the fact that he has not played a game for the last week. So impressive was his January and February form that he had such a lead on the pack that over a month off has not had too much of an effect on his position. A similar points based chart to Jeets’ tells this tale.

Just as it seems he might drop out of our top ten, the Indian captain will soon be soon be back in the red of Royal Challengers Bangalore and working his way back up the table.

This post will have to prove something of an obituary for at least two players. It is unclear as to whether Steve Smith and David Warner will get another point this calendar year so their totals this week may remain for the rest of the competition. Rather fittingly, both players remain side by side in the league, even if they do not stand united after the dust has settled on Sandpaper Gate. In terms of points scored, both players had one of their better totals in recent weeks. Steve Smith’s 72 was his best total for three weeks – despite the fact that 60 of his points came from fielding points. David Warner, in perhaps his last ever display in a baggy green, finished his first innings with a combative 28 ball 30. Aggressive to the last. Their respective totals of 706 and 752 puts them in 17^th and 18^th – but will probably be the two lowest scores by the end of the year.  

Week

Nathan Lyon - 287

Dean Elgar - 225 

AB De Villiers - 217

Jeetan Patel - 217

Kane Williamson - 152

Joe Root - 121

Quinton de Kock - 118

David Warner - 102

Mitchell Marsh - 101

Hashim Amla - 72 

Steve Smith- 72

George Bailey - 71

Simon Harmer - 63

Rashid Khan - 40

Shaun Marsh - 26

JP Duminy - 12 

Shakib Al Hasan - dnp 

Ravi Ashwin - dnp 

Jofra Archer - dnp 

Jos Buttler - dnp 

Aaron Finch- dnp 

Ravi Jadeja - dnp 

Virat Kohli - dnp 

Sunil Narine - dnp 

Overall

Rashid Khan - 2078

Simon Harmer - 2011

JP Duminy - 1671

Nathan Lyon - 1512

Sunil Narine- 1450

Joe Root - 1429

Mitchell Marsh - 1346

Virat Kohli- 1231

Jeetan Patel - 1101

Kane Williamson -1058

Jos Buttler - 1026

Aaron Finch - 999

AB De Villiers- 995

Ravi Ashwin - 878

Quinton de Kock - 788

Dean Elgar- 782

David Warner - 752

Steve Smith - 706

Hashim Amla - 670

Shakib Al Hasan - 662

George Bailey - 631

Jofra Archer - 550

Shaun Marsh- 532

Ravi Jadeja - 412

The State of the Game - How did we get to Sandpaper Gate?

Tomorrow I will be posting my usual round up of the week. Obviously the week has been dominated by cricketing matters unlike any other we have seen in recent memory and the post could have been bogged down by Sandpaper Gate and - of course I will mention it due to the fact that two players point scoring has been suspended - but I felt it best to air the issue separately. 

What is the state of our game currently?

Well what was the state of our game in years gone by? 

Stereotypically (but accurately) cricket was painted as a sport for the prosperous, the refined and the wealthy. This was the same for the spectator as much as the participant. For the crowd, demeanour and custom were the order of the day - something that could be seen by the dress codes, waiting list and subscription policies of grounds from Lords to the MCG. Cricket was another arm of the dying Commonwealth and had an archetypal quality all of it's own. 

What changed? 

As cricket became less popular - the crowd that turned up began to take on more of the flavour of the football (in England) or rugby (in Australia) crowd. This was encouraged by both broadcasters and by cricket boards and led to the T20-isation of the game. By the turn of the millennium, sledging and other 'unsportsmanlike' behaviour had become de rigeur and proved both intimidating and successful - quite a potent pairing in any competitive sport. This was embraced more by Australia than any other country. A land that characterises itself through an apparent practice of bonding with each other through the use of mutual criticism began to select cricketers, not just on their skill, but through their ability to be tough guys and give off a near egomanical persona. Perhaps the most galling example of this is David Warner, a man oozing with talent but whose pantomime villain persona was how he chose to characterise himself. The fact that this avatar of cricket proved successful for Australia only compounded the problem. 

This saw a naturally brutish core group of players have a disproportionate amount of sway over the team. In recent years this has seen super aggressive players (Warner, Haddin etc) overshadow equally as talented players who were not cut from this mould . The fact that their captain was one of these 'beta males' did not temper this aggressive streak. Instead more placid characters were encouraged to bring out their inner beast. The most abrasive example of this being when Nathan Lyon, one of the more reflective characters in the Australian set up, claimed that he wanted to "end the careers" of some English players. This was said with the conviction of an extra from Neighbours as it was not his real character - it was the character he had been asked to take on as a 'senior player' in an aggressive team. 

This new era of Australian cricket was compounded by the hiring of Darren Lehmann - a man that was brought in to propagate this attitude. An antithesis to Mickey Arthur, Lehhmann represented this new sense of Australian-ness and removed players that did not fit into this mode. The likes of Glenn Maxwell and Aaron Finch - both eminently talented cricketers and intelligent team players - who did not fit into this myopic mould and were summarily cast off. 

The brainwashing of the Australian media and the Australian public that this was the way forward was all consuming. It fit into the 'man's man' image that Australia characterised themselves by and was hyped up by brash, loud, laddish Australian cricket pundits - the self same pundits who are now showing mock outrage at the state of their precious game. This was a set of cricketers packaged for a T20 generation - players who played roles that could be easily understood and characterised. Such Australian luminaries as Bob Simpson would have thought this current set up unthinkable and unsustainable. And how right he would have been. 

All of this; the short-sightedness, the lack of consideration, the cloying public, the lack of humility and acceptance of arrogance have led us to this juncture. 

It is, perhaps, heart-breaking that two of the more introspective characters in the set-up, Smith and Bancroft, have copped it for the excesses of Warner, the walking embodiment of all that went wrong with Australian cricket. 

What needs to be learnt from this is that clever, reputable and well regarded are not dirty words. Something that Paine's words today have echoed: 

“We’re a different group of players than Australia have had for a long time. We haven’t got too many guys that like to verbalise and have that sort of really hard-nosed Australian approach. We’re about creating an environment where guys can come in and play cricket and just be themselves. I think if we can achieve that then we’ll have guys having better results.”

Maybe this different group of players, under a different coach and with a different mindset can return us to the a familiar past - one that, whilst we might not crave it, we desperately need.

Simon Harmer - The Best Cricketer of the Week

What with no completed Test matches this week, there is a severe paucity of cricket to write about this week. In fact only five of our Cricketers played. Despite this, it does not detract from two outstanding performances in domestic cricket for two outstanding spinners. Between them Simon Harmer and Jeetan Patel got thirteen wickets. This week's cricketer of the week, Simon Harmer, bagged the lion's share with 8 for the Warriors against the Knights with Patel chipping in a fivefer in his first innings for Wellington against Central Districts. Both of these domestic stalwarts have coupled their wicket taking impetus with rock bottom economies, with Patel's figures of 19-12-13-0 being the most eye-catching. The spin twins are having fans of the County Championship salivating with the hope they will continue this fine form in the coming months. 

Another 330 points for Rashid Khan further extends his dominance in the overall table despite his team's poor form in the World Cup Qualifiers. He is also the first player to break the 2000 point barrier in the overall point league, with Simon Harmer 52 points away from that accolade. In what has been a very wicket heavy week for the top scorers in the weekly league, the Afghanistan spinner bagged 8 in two games - meaning that the top three for the week shared 21 wickets between them in their three different tournaments. Whilst he will be at a personal low, Rashid can cling on to a great stat. The spinner has by far the highest wicket tally for any player after 43 ODIS at 99 - with 12 more than second place Mitchell Starc.

Ending the big hitters section, we can now look at two Cricketers who played but maybe did not contribute as much as they'd have liked. Shakib Al Hassan played in the final of the Nidahas Trophy and, with a great sense of deja vu, did exactly the same as he did the previous week - scored 7 runs and got one wicket. This gave him his second consecutive score of 27. Despite the relatively small total posted, due to the lack of other cricket going on this week, he has still moved up the table two places to sit in sixteenth place. On top of this today is his birthday - a welcome present for the 31 year old. 

But one player who will be disappointed is JP Duminy - who joins the small list of players who have played a game but scored zero points. Going against Cricket South Africa, Duminy decided to join his Islamabad teammates in Pakistan and - despite the potential risk - did not bat nor bowl. Up until this point Duminy was the only player to have registered points in every game week - an impressive spell brought to an end. 

Week

Simon Harmer - 355
Jeetan Patel - 340
Rashid Khan - 280
Shakib Al Hasan - 27
Hashim Amla - dnp 
Jofra Archer - dnp 
Ravi Ashwin - dnp
George Bailey - dnp 
Jos Buttler - dnp 
Quinton de Kock- dnp 
AB De Villiers - dnp 
JP Duminy - dnp 
Dean Elgar - dnp 
Aaron Finch - dnp 
Ravi Jadeja- dnp 
Virat Kohli - dnp 
Nathan Lyon - dnp 
Mitchell Marsh - dnp 
Shaun Marsh - dnp 
Sunil Narine - dnp 
Joe Root - dnp 
Steve Smith - dnp 
David Warner - dnp 
Kane Williamson - dnp 

Overall

Rashid Khan - 2038
Simon Harmer - 1948
JP Duminy - 1659
Sunil Narine- 1450
Joe Root - 1308
Mitchell Marsh - 1245
Virat Kohli- 1231
Nathan Lyon - 1225
Jos Buttler - 1026
Aaron Finch - 999
Kane Williamson -906
Jeetan Patel - 884
Ravi Ashwin - 878
AB De Villiers- 778
Quinton de Kock - 670
Shakib Al Hasan - 662
David Warner - 650
Steve Smith - 633
Hashim Amla - 598
George Bailey - 560
Dean Elgar- 557
Jofra Archer - 550
Shaun Marsh- 506
Ravi Jadeja - 412

Jeetan Patel - The Best Cricketer of the Week

Why spin bowlers do so well in these rankings proves elusive to me. Jeetan Patel is the third spin bowler after Nathan Lyon and Simon Harmer to sit atop the table for cricketer of the week. Perhaps the reason is that they keep such low economies coupled alongside, occasionally, devastating wicket taking abilities. This was certainly the case for the veteran New Zealand international in his game for Wellington this week. The very well rested player has not played a game since the 14th January and has long sat rock bottom of our overall table. This was drastically put right with a ten wicket match and a stunning 21 maidens - the highest I can remember for any player in 2018. With the County Championship just around the corner, Patel will hope to continue to put his mark on the overall table for Warwickshire. It is now Ravi Jadeja who holds the unenviable position of lowest scoring player. 

Another long absent player that had a smashing week on return was Shakib Al Hasan - however this smashing was more literal than he would have liked. After six weeks out of the game, the former table topping allrounder got 27 points but then proceeded to be involved in a high profile spell of defiance which saw the glass in the Bangladesh dressing room getting smashed. The Jessore born man has a plethora of domestic T20 games round the corner but is a mile away from the top ten due to his lengthily injury - despite this we know he is capable of inflicting big hitting deliveries on more than just glazing so we could see him edge up the table. 

It was a confusing week for two Test playing regulars. For Joe Root, this was down to the fact that he was playing practice matches against a New Zealand XI, however it is amusing to see him pick up almost as many points for his bowling as for his batting. The part time spinner looked slightly more than part time against the rather green batsmen of New Zealand's second tier. This, plus his 166 runs across two games, has seen him push into the top five of the overall table with a comfortable cushion ahead of 6th place Mitchell Marsh. The next player in his sights is Sunil Narine, who is expected to have a spell out of the game once the PSL finishes this week. If Root keeps up this pressure he will move even further up the table. 

Any casual observer of Test cricket will say that strike rate is not where the players are likely to pick up too many of their points. AB De Villiers has been the exception to this in the Second Test. In a Test series that has seen no player pull away from the pack in a dramatic fashion, De Villiers was prolific with both runs scored (154) and strike rates (86.30 and 107.69). This has seen him pick up 214 - his highest score for a week by some margin - and place him as the highest South African international on the overall league. He is in massive form since his international comeback with five 50s in 10 innings and rightly deserves to be ascending the table. 

No doubt the South Africa- Australia Test series is proving entertaining - but it is also throwing up some unlikely high scorers. From just this week's table we see the aforementioned AB De Villiers at the top of the table, alongside Nathan Lyon and the unassuming Mitchell Marsh. Down at the other end of the table we see (perhaps expectedly) Shaun Marsh but then followed by Steve Smith and Dean Elgar. This has very much been a Test series geared up for the allrounder rather than the prolific runscorer. In fact the word prolific is not an adjective you would associate with either Steve Smith or Dean Elgar in 2018 - who have both looked unassuming compared to their heroics of 2017. This is reflected in their positions in the bottom third of the overall table. 

Week

Jeetan Patel - 436
Joe Root - 361
Rashid Khan - 234
AB De Villiers- 214
Nathan Lyon - 167
JP Duminy - 134
Mitchell Marsh - 124
Sunil Narine - 116
Hashim Amla - 103
David Warner - 96
Quinton de Kock- 89
Dean Elgar - 82 
Ravi Ashwin - 68
Steve Smith- 56
George Bailey - 46
Shakib Al Hasan - 27
Aaron Finch - 25
Shaun Marsh - 25
Jofra Archer - dnp 
Jos Buttler - dnp 
Simon Harmer - dnp 
Ravi Jadeja - dnp 
Virat Kohli - dnp 
Kane Williamson - dnp 

Overall

Rashid Khan - 1758
JP Duminy - 1659
Simon Harmer - 1593
Sunil Narine- 1450
Joe Root - 1308
Mitchell Marsh - 1245
Virat Kohli- 1231
Nathan Lyon - 1225
Jos Buttler - 1026
Aaron Finch - 999
Kane Williamson -906
Ravi Ashwin - 878
AB De Villiers- 778
Quinton de Kock - 670
David Warner - 650
Steve Smith - 633
Shakib Al Hasan - 635
Hashim Amla - 598
George Bailey - 560
Dean Elgar- 557
Jofra Archer - 550
Jeetan Patel - 544
Shaun Marsh- 506
Ravi Jadeja - 412