Mitchell Marsh - The Best Cricketer of the Week

If you have a plan that works then you should stick to it. The Marsh brothers have a plan that works and they've stuck to it. The plan takes place in a mere three weeks. Firstly you disappoint for your national team to the point where people question your position. You then return to your domestic club and play an absolute blinder, winning the Cricketer of the Week in the process. Lastly you return to the national team triumphant and lead them to glory. The elder Marsh brother completed the three step Marsh plan this morning, whilst his younger brother is lagging behind on Stage 2. After a torrid time in the UAE, Mitchell returned to Western Australia and was instrumental in his team racking up 540 on a Brisbane pitch that seemed tailor made for runs. It remains to be seen whether Stage Three will come quite as quickly for Mitchell as it did for Shaun, who top scored with 106 runs in this morning's ODI with South Africa. Instead he may have to resign himself to racking up points with carefree abandon in the Sheffield Shield until the India series. Overall he has jumped Dean Elgar to move into 16th place - more domestic triumph could see him overhaul the injured JP Duminy. 

Another week of dominance for Simon Harmer and the resurgence of Nathan Lyon has yet again proved how a high economy is key to scoring big week in and week out. The South African spinner got 14 maidens in his game for the Warriors vs the Knights, whilst his Australian counterpart got 13 for New South Wales versus Tasmania. This has seen the pair finish second and third in the weekly table and has also seen Harmer extend his lead over Rashid Khan to 1275 with eight weeks left in the year. It may be the time to call Simon Harmer as the undefeated champion of cricket in 2019. As I said two weeks ago, the double award of points for maidens and economies will come to an end when the list is deselected for 2019. In the new formula for 2019, Harmer would have been awarded 173 points and finished two places lower with Lyon getting 180 and leapfrogging him into third. However this is a conversation for next year, this year we need to revel in the bowling heroics of Simon Ross Harmer. 

These posts are not a place for self-aggrandisement but.....I was right. I was bloody right. Last week I christened Dean Elgar as Mr Inconsistent whilst dubbing his national colleague Quinton de Kock as his antithesis. What happened this week? He followed his 128 runs for the Titans against the Lions with a duck in the fixture against the Dolphins. This saw the batsman pick up just ten points for a catch. Subsequently we have seen him go from his third highest score of 2018 last week to his second lowest this. This has seen him lose two places in the overall table as Mitchell Marsh and...well would you believe it...Quinton De Kock overtake him. Elgar is now 18th in the overall league. But this is not the only prophesying that I did last week. I pointed out that George Bailey was the antithesis to Shaun Marsh in as much as he performed well in a quasi national team but flops domestically. Bailey then returns to his domestic side and scores the heady total of 7 runs across his two innings. In an Elgar-like move this saw him score 10% of his total last time out to scoring his lowest ever total this week. After a year of wayward predictions I seem to have saved up all my accuracy for one week. 

Week

Mitchell Marsh- 276 
Simon Harmer - 243
Nathan Lyon - 225
Shaun Marsh - 198
Jos Buttler - 103 
Quinton De Kock - 73
Aaron Finch- 62
Joe Root - 48
Kane Williamson - 38
Dean Elgar - 10
George Bailey - 7
Shakib Al Hasan - dnp 
Hashim Amla- dnp 
Jofra Archer- dnp 
Ravi Ashwin- dnp 
AB De Villiers- dnp 
JP Duminy- dnp 
Ravi Jadeja- dnp 
Rashid Khan - dnp 
Virat Kohli- dnp 
Sunil Narine- dnp 
Jeetan Patel - dnp 
Steve Smith- dnp 
David Warner - dnp 

Overall

Simon Harmer - 6830
Rashid Khan - 5555
Jeetan Patel - 5311
Virat Kohli- 4369
Jos Buttler - 4297
Sunil Narine- 3938
Joe Root - 3889
Aaron Finch - 3780
Jofra Archer - 3578
Kane Williamson - 3544
Ravi Ashwin - 3370
Nathan Lyon - 2976
Shakib Al Hasan - 2886
Ravi Jadeja - 2717
JP Duminy - 2496
Mitchell Marsh - 2493
Quinton de Kock - 2281
Dean Elgar- 2232
Shaun Marsh- 2102
Hashim Amla - 2091
AB De Villiers- 2010
David Warner - 1401
Steve Smith - 1350
George Bailey - 1087