The last time someone put up as epic a fight centred on maidens as Simon Harmer has this week, it was during the Battle of Troy. Both of our County Championship brethren picked up a huge amount of points for their maidens scored but, Cricketer of the Week, Simon Harmer's 581 consisted of 32% maidens - a statistic usually only reserved for the House of Commons. It has been an effective week for both Harmer and Patel and these hard Summer months that squeeze in two County games in a week, whilst undoubtably tiring, do boost the total points scored for the bowlers participating in them. Simon Harmer now has a 780 run lead on his historic rival Rashid Khan and it is in those two very different players where you can see the difference in points picked up. Whilst Rashid Khan is eminently more well known and will have played more games over the course of 2018, it is the destructive nature of the bowler in long form cricket that allows one to regularly pick up massive hauls as the South African spinner has done this week. Whilst the title appears to be moving away from Essex, it may be that Harmer's personal lead is now insurmountable.
When I refer to Rashid Khan as Harmer's historical rival, it is because it is no longer he that most closely pushes the South African for Pole position but Jeetan Patel whose 496 points this week gives him a narrow advantage over the Afghanistani spinner. Two impressive performances, including a match winning effort in the Day/Night match against Durham, has seen the New Zealand bowler only spend a week in third spot, having overtaken Sunil Narine last week, before taking silver position this week. If you got points for captaincy he would have further pulled away from third position, thanks to a gutsy declaration that arguably won Warwickshire the game. With twenty wickets taken last year in the T20 Blast, his point scoring may still continue.
It was not only Patel who was shaking things up at the top of the table this week. The Jos Buttler Sumer of Batting Pyrotechnics rumbled on for another week and his score of 311 would have been enough for him to have ended top of the table on your average week, instead he will have to be content with pushing a dormant Sunil Narine down to fifth place and claiming fourth place as his own. Since the start of May the Englishman has scored 916 runs and picked up 1605 points, moving him from 12th to his current fourth spot. This has undoubtably been a very good summer for England's recalled and rejuvenated hero.
I enjoy pitting players against each other on the eve of big tournaments and watching them battle it out. Last time we did this was when we watched the threeway dog fight between De Villiers, Kohli and Williamson throughout the IPL - a battle emphatically won by the Hyderabad batsman. Kohli can join another battle as we approach the series between England and India. The Indian captain and his English counterpart sit in 8th and 7th place respectively and both are coming out of a poor patch of form. Kohli's injury comeback against Ireland this week saw him score exactly 0 points whilst Root will be disappointed with his Summer where he has yet to do anything Earth-shattering but has been consistent. The pair are separated by a mere 74 points so it is anyone's for the taking. Will the home captain prevail or will Kohli break his English voodoo and push himself up the table?
After thirteen weeks of ducks, Steve Smith returned to cricket last night in front of a handful of people in King City, Canada. His yield of 93 points was enough to see movement at the bottom of the table for the first time in months. The ex-Australian captain is now 47 points above fellow disgraced Aussie, David Warner - who plays tonight for Winnipeg. There are now 402 points between these two Aussies and next placed Ravi Jadeja. It remains to be seen if the parochial Canadian bowling might still salvage the year for the two antipodean cast offs - but my word it is strange to see the mighty so far fallen.
Week
Simon Harmer - 581
Jeetan Patel- 496
Jos Buttler - 311
Aaron Finch - 196
Steve Smith- 93
Joe Root - 56
Nathan Lyon - 11
Virat Kohli - 0
Shakib Al Hasan - dnp
Hashim Amla - dnp
Jofra Archer - dnp
Ravi Ashwin- dnp
George Bailey - dnp
Quinton De Kock- dnp
AB De Villiers- dnp
JP Duminy - dnp
Dean Elgar - dnp
Ravi Jadeja - dnp
Rashid Khan - dnp
Nathan Lyon - dnp
Mitchell Marsh - dnp
Sunil Narine- dnp
David Warner - dnp
Kane Williamson - dnp
Overall
Simon Harmer - 4122
Jeetan Patel - 3375
Rashid Khan - 3342
Jos Buttler - 2921
Sunil Narine- 2617
Kane Williamson -2405
Joe Root - 2245
Virat Kohli- 2171
AB De Villiers- 2010
Aaron Finch - 1870
Nathan Lyon - 1833
JP Duminy - 1737
Ravi Ashwin - 1588
Hashim Amla - 1524
Shaun Marsh- 1498
Dean Elgar- 1484
Shakib Al Hasan - 1439
Mitchell Marsh - 1425
Jofra Archer - 1409
Quinton de Kock - 1292
Ravi Jadeja - 1201
Steve Smith - 799
David Warner - 752
George Bailey - 631
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