I stumbled across a website this week that tells you all the words that entered the dictionary on the year of your birth (trust me it is more interesting than it sounds) - for those born in 2018 I would suggest the verb 'to Kohli' should be featured on that site. For me Kohli-ing is repeatedly performing a seemingly impossible feat twice in close succession. This is a talent that the estimable Virat has performed numerous times but none more startlingly than his two mammoth hundreds against West Indies this week. Last time out I referred to ODIs being Kohli's favoured format but the idea of him scoring 417 points in a week was not in my wildest dreams. This is the India captain's highest weekly total of 2018 but the second time that he has scored over 400 points - the first time was back in January where he won Cricketer of the Week for the first time for his performances in the ODIs against South Africa. This was not the only threshold he passed this week. He also passes 4000 points in our overall table and leapfrogs both Sunil Narine and Jos Buttler to claim fourth place. There is also the small matter of him surpassing the 10,000 run mark in ODIs. He is now going to have a couple of dormant weeks as he is going to be rested for the T20 series but I think he has more than picked up the slack with his performances this week.
Simon Harmer has been something of a fan favourite on these posts. The unlikely leader of our Top 24 still continues to impress after returning to his homeland. In the last fortnight he has signed on to one of the franchises in the new Mzansi Super League and has also claimed his 500th wicket this week in the Warriors shock win against the Dolphins. Whilst he has not impressed with either bat or ball, his economies and maidens have seen him take second spot this week. This is something I feel needs to be addressed. In no way to detract from Harmer or Jeetan Patel's achievements this year but the two players, who sit first and third in the overall table, benefit hugely from economy rates in long ball cricket. This has caused me to rethink how I will calculate points next year when we select a whole new batch of players to monitor for 2019. I intend to drop the five points allocated to each bowler for a maiden over. This was originally put in as a way of boosting bowlers points against batsmen but has, arguably, gone too far. This would not have huge effects on the success of most players most weeks. Harmer's 220 points this week would be recalculated to a (still fairly decent) 175 - however what it would stop is players who are overly reliant on stifling economies and boosting their overall weekly score. This is something that the likes of Sunil Narine and Nathan Lyon have profited from in the past. Lyon, last week's champion, got 353 points with 65 points from maidens and then doubled that with a further 60 points for two economy rates below 4.0. This new rule should cancel out the dominance we have seen from a certain type of bowler this year whilst still making the Harmers and Patels of this world a worthwhile selection.
Maybe Aaron Finch is trying to prove a point. Maybe he's broken. Maybe he's tried to recalibrate and has done so with a phenomenal success rate. Whatever the answer is one thing is for sure; he is desperate to bury his label as someone whose batting style is not fit for Test cricket. And so desperate has been to redress this point that, after a promising Test debut from a personal perspective, he has followed it up with some absolutely dire performances in the T20 series. This week Finch scored 4 runs in three innings against the UAE and Australia. His weekly score looks much improved with some impressive performances in the field but, my god, Finch does look good as a Test batsmen now. This strategy has turned heads and England's Jos Buttler, another player to be labelled a short form Cricketer alone, went out and scored a duck this week. This means, through a combination of precipitation and ineptitude, the wicket keeper batsman has managed to hide his big hitting light under a bushel and scored a combined total of 28 runs across the five ODI series against Sri Lanka. If being bad at 50 over cricket is the key to Test success, I expect my call up any day now.
Simon Harmer has been something of a fan favourite on these posts. The unlikely leader of our Top 24 still continues to impress after returning to his homeland. In the last fortnight he has signed on to one of the franchises in the new Mzansi Super League and has also claimed his 500th wicket this week in the Warriors shock win against the Dolphins. Whilst he has not impressed with either bat or ball, his economies and maidens have seen him take second spot this week. This is something I feel needs to be addressed. In no way to detract from Harmer or Jeetan Patel's achievements this year but the two players, who sit first and third in the overall table, benefit hugely from economy rates in long ball cricket. This has caused me to rethink how I will calculate points next year when we select a whole new batch of players to monitor for 2019. I intend to drop the five points allocated to each bowler for a maiden over. This was originally put in as a way of boosting bowlers points against batsmen but has, arguably, gone too far. This would not have huge effects on the success of most players most weeks. Harmer's 220 points this week would be recalculated to a (still fairly decent) 175 - however what it would stop is players who are overly reliant on stifling economies and boosting their overall weekly score. This is something that the likes of Sunil Narine and Nathan Lyon have profited from in the past. Lyon, last week's champion, got 353 points with 65 points from maidens and then doubled that with a further 60 points for two economy rates below 4.0. This new rule should cancel out the dominance we have seen from a certain type of bowler this year whilst still making the Harmers and Patels of this world a worthwhile selection.
Maybe Aaron Finch is trying to prove a point. Maybe he's broken. Maybe he's tried to recalibrate and has done so with a phenomenal success rate. Whatever the answer is one thing is for sure; he is desperate to bury his label as someone whose batting style is not fit for Test cricket. And so desperate has been to redress this point that, after a promising Test debut from a personal perspective, he has followed it up with some absolutely dire performances in the T20 series. This week Finch scored 4 runs in three innings against the UAE and Australia. His weekly score looks much improved with some impressive performances in the field but, my god, Finch does look good as a Test batsmen now. This strategy has turned heads and England's Jos Buttler, another player to be labelled a short form Cricketer alone, went out and scored a duck this week. This means, through a combination of precipitation and ineptitude, the wicket keeper batsman has managed to hide his big hitting light under a bushel and scored a combined total of 28 runs across the five ODI series against Sri Lanka. If being bad at 50 over cricket is the key to Test success, I expect my call up any day now.
