Lionel Messi and Argentina are very much in the thoughts of those of us whose sporting proclivities also lean towards Football. For those who don't know - an eminently talented player weighted down by a country's gaze could not lift an unbalanced team away from humiliation. I do not know how keen Cricketer of the Week Shaun Marsh and his team mate Aaron Finch are on soccer but they might feel a certain affinity with the diminutive Argentinian captain. Whilst the eldest Marsh brother claims the title of Cricketer of the Week, a mere five points (or half a catch) separates him from the newly invigorated Australian opener Finch. Despite their impressive individual scores they are on the verge of being whitewashed by England - and have been on the receiving end of some of the most damaging scenes with a bat since Bruce Wayne fell down that well. If there were any bowlers on this list this year (something I doubt will be an occurrence next year as well) I feel their points total would be something of a different tale. As old fashioned batsmen, Marsh and Finch, who offer very little even in the field, have been largely protected from the decimation offered by Bairstow and Roy. Marsh's performances over the last fortnight has seen him improve his position on our overall table. He now raises himself to the dizzying heights of 16th and is a mere 4 points off Dean Elgar. With the final ODI today, a few runs would see him placed eminently midtable - especially if he improves his strike rate which has been laconic at best.
Nathan Lyon returned to the fray this week after a lengthily absence of ten weeks. Whilst his 33 points do not represent a particularly good week, he will be happy to be featuring in a cricket game - especially in the one day format. Whilst his week's points are nothing to be proud about, the Australian spinner was so prolific in the early months of the year that, despite his ten week absence, he is still in our top ten overall. He finds himself just below AB De Villiers, who had a whole IPL season, and JP Duminy, who similar to him had a stonking start to the year but has tailed off. With the success rate of English spinners, we may well see the Goat return in this last ODI to pick up some more points.
There was only one player who was active this week that was not involved in the Anglo-Australian tussle. Having learnt he would be eligible for England for next year's Ashes, Jofra Archer responded with 182 points - his second highest weekly score of 2018. Whilst he is usually seen as a wicket taker, the Sussex man did a good job of strangling the opposition this week and picked up 35 points from maidens against Durham. He joins Shaun Marsh in slowly creeping up the table putting real daylight between himself and Quinton de Kock, who is now 117 points behind him. With the T20 Blast imminent we could see the English bowler really blast up the table.
Canada have not been on the cricketing scene for many a year. Rewind a decade and they were one of the more competent Associate nations but poor decisions and mismanagement have seen the likes of Ireland, Afghanistan, Netherlands and Scotland overshadow them. No wonder Steve Smith and David Warner felt an affinity towards the newly formed Global T20 Canada tournament having been overshadowed this year by scandal. The two prolific batsman begin their campaigns this week with Smith's Toronto Nationals kicking the tournament off on Thursday and Warner's Winnipeg Hawks making their bow the following day. Could we see them register enough points to make them credible in our overall table? They are desperately off the pace with a gulf of 449 points between Warner and nearest rival Ravi Jadeja. Only time will tell if their form and the expected amateur nature of some of the Canadian bowlers might throw a few surprises at us.
Week
Shaun Marsh - 195
Aaron Finch - 190
Jofra Archer - 182
Jos Buttler - 165
Joe Root - 51
Nathan Lyon - 33
Hashim Amla- dnp
Ravi Ashwin- dnp
George Bailey - dnp
Quinton De Kock- dnp
AB De Villiers- dnp
JP Duminy- dnp
Dean Elgar - dnp
Simon Harmer - dnp
Rashid Khan - dnp
Virat Kohli- dnp
Mitchell Marsh- dnp
Sunil Narine- dnp
Jeetan Patel - dnp
Steve Smith - dnp
David Warner - dnp
Kane Williamson - dnp
Overall
Simon Harmer - 3541
Rashid Khan - 3342
Jeetan Patel - 2879
Sunil Narine- 2617
Jos Buttler - 2610
Kane Williamson -2405
Joe Root - 2189
Virat Kohli- 2171
AB De Villiers- 2010
Nathan Lyon - 1822
JP Duminy - 1737
Aaron Finch - 1674
Ravi Ashwin - 1588
Hashim Amla - 1524
Dean Elgar- 1484
Shaun Marsh- 1480
Shakib Al Hasan - 1439
Mitchell Marsh - 1425
Jofra Archer - 1409
Quinton de Kock - 1292
Ravi Jadeja - 1201
David Warner - 752
Steve Smith - 706
George Bailey - 631
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