It must be difficult for a natural record breaker such as Aaron Finch to be the second person to do something or the seventh best at something but this week he is the second player after Shakib Al Hasan back in January to score back to Cricketer of the Week accolades largely due to the seventh highest T20 Blast score in the history of the competition. His 131 for Surrey put the icing on the cake of what was already a week where he had ended the tri-series with 47 against Pakistan before joining up with Surrey and getting 58 in his first match against Essex. It really has been an excellent Summer for the Victorian with his average since the first of June at a heady 70.7. His strike rate is almost as impressive as his high number of runs. This week alone his three totals came at strike rates of 174, 175 and 166. He continues to rise up the overall table and has this week leapfrogged the long dormant Kane Williamson to claim sixth place.
Using these head to head battles has added a further element of competition to this overall contest - however the comparison between Joe Root and Virat Kohli has been as one side as the Titanic in the last week. Root's Summer continues to be drab and dreary - this week his 22 points is his lowest ever score from a week where he has been active. This has been coupled with his omission from the England squad for the final T20 match. Compare this to the Indian captain who used this week as a springboard to turn his fortunes around with 265 points and a second place finish in the weekly table. He has coupled 122 runs with decent strike rates and fielding contributions to put together his most effective week in England in recent memory. From an Indian perspective there will be a huge sense of anticipation that the two players form will remain the same as the Test series approaches. Overall Kohli has overtaken both Williamson and Root and put himself into seventh place and now has a 228 point lead over his English opponent.
The Summer Test series are very much starting to swing into play - which sees a number of our list returning to action after periods away from point scoring however four of these players have been rather humiliated on their return to the biggest stage. Our three South African candidates Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock and Dean Elgar were rather humbled by Sri Lanka in a match that finished somewhat prematurely this morning. Whilst Amla's weekly score looks the most decent of the trio, a majority of his runs came courtesy of a score of 78 versus a Sri Lanka Board XI and just 15 from the Test. Quinton De Kock's poor run of form that dates back to the IPL continues as his return from nine absent weeks yielded a mere 15 runs across four innings. Not much better was Shakib Al Hasan's showing in Bangladesh's loss to the West Indies. He contributed 12 runs and 2 wickets as his team were rolled over in an innings defeat. Both of these teams and their players will hope for better in their off season tours.
The tournament is over for two of the three players who have been plying their trade in Canada over the last few weeks. Sunil Narine's Montreal Tigers and Steve Smith's Toronto Nationals have been eliminated with only David Warner's Winnipeg Hawks facing the prospect of a further two games if they can reach the final in today's last qualifier. Inarguably it is the West Indian spinner who has impressed the most of the trio. Despite his team's early exit the player has accrued 357 points over the tournament. Despite David Warner's tepid start, a good week this week has seen both he and Smith get 259 to this point in the competition - however Warner will swell this total due to his continued participation. It will be Warner who feels most pleased out of the two disgraced Australians as he breaks the 1000 point mark for the year and puts himself in contention to overtake Ravi Jadeja when he joins up with the St Lucia Stars.
Naturally we need to mention Simon Harmer, Jeetan Patel and Rashid Khan at least once in these posts. As predicted Harmer and Patel are struggling in the T20 Blast due to both these players preferring the longer form of the game. What is perhaps more of a surprise is Rashid Khan, something of a T20 Golgotha, taking to the tournament like a duck to hoisin sauce. It is something of a surprise to me that a man who is so destructive in the Big Bash League and the IPL would struggle in the more pedestrian standards of the T20 Blast. This week he got a measly three wickets from his three games. Over and above this his economy rates have been shockingly high for a man who, on the international stage, is usually the king of the Maiden. Sussex will not mind whilst they are near the top of the table but they will want their superstar acquisition to start playing in a more super way if they have a chance of winning the tournament.
Week
Aaron Finch - 386
Virat Kohli - 265
Ravi Ashwin - 202
David Warner - 187
Jos Buttler - 181
Sunil Narine- 156
Steve Smith- 153
Hashim Amla - 143
Jofra Archer - 129
Dean Elgar- 110
Simon Harmer - 105
Shakib Al Hassan - 102
Quinton De Kock- 95
Rashid Khan - 71
Jeetan Patel - 47
Joe Root - 22
George Bailey - dnp
AB De Villiers- dnp
JP Duminy- dnp
Ravi Jadeja- dnp
Nathan Lyon - dnp
Mitchell Marsh- dnp
Shaun Marsh - dnp
Kane Williamson - dnp
Overall
Simon Harmer - 4250
Jeetan Patel - 3522
Rashid Khan - 3463
Jos Buttler - 3221
Sunil Narine- 2974
Aaron Finch - 2689
Virat Kohli- 2495
Kane Williamson -2405
Joe Root - 2267
AB De Villiers- 2010
Jofra Archer - 1833
Nathan Lyon - 1833
Ravi Ashwin - 1790
JP Duminy - 1737
Shakib Al Hasan - 1673
Hashim Amla - 1667
Dean Elgar- 1594
Shaun Marsh- 1498
Mitchell Marsh - 1425
Quinton de Kock - 1387
Ravi Jadeja - 1201
David Warner - 1011
Steve Smith - 965
George Bailey - 631
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