The headlines have been stolen by better individual performances - but for the fifth time in 2019 it is Glenn Maxwell and his explosive strike rate that finishes top of the table for the week. Whilst Messrs Warner and Finch got their centuries, Maxwell's three scores of 28, 20 and 46 all came at a strike rate of 150 or more - adding 110 points to his weekly total. This has been the story of Maxwell's year - never the player in the spotlight but quietly contributing without ever pushing on to big score. But there he sits - yet again - with his huge lead over second place. Thanks to Jeetan Patel's week off he now has swelled his lead to 988 and his prodigious run of form continues. Another facet that has led to the Maxwell dominated world we now live in, is his true all round ability. This week he gained points for everything other than his wickets - a reversal to what we saw during his spell at Lancashire where it was his bowling that propped up his totals. It is not characteristic for The Big Show to be so quietly accruing plaudits but if this goes on his lead will be as big as his nickname.
This is not the only example of a player's contributions to the team being overshadowed by more eye-catching performances. After England's wobble against Pakistan, they have managed to steady the ship and are looking every bit the well oiled machine we have expected from them. Joe Root is getting a lot of focus on him - and rightfully so due to his two centuries and one half century from the first four games of the campaign. This week his hundred against the West Indies stole the limelight from a couple of very strong Jonny Bairstow performances. His 45 against West Indies and 51 against Bangladesh allowed England to build a confident base from which to build up on and, it could be argued, were just as important to England's progress as Root's performances. Bairstow's 196 points puts him third in the table for the week and also moves him back into the top five at the expense of Simon Harmer. With these two high-performing batsmen in the opening three for England it is clear to see how momentum is starting to build as we approach the back section of the group stages. Bigger things could come.
Down at the other end of the weekly table we see some contributors continuing with some desperately poor form. I have written previously about how Kuldeep Yadav looks woefully out of touch. Since April his form has been on a complete nose dive. The culmination of this came this week where he contributed nothing for India's game against Australia. No wickets. A high economy. No catches. Zero. Nada. He is still comparatively well placed in the overall table thanks to his early form but is sinking like a stone. The only saving grace for the spinner is the fact that, unlike at Kolkata, he continues to be selected for India. With this faith in his ability a turnaround could happen at any given moment. Two other players who look sunk are County Championship contributors Jack Leach and Callum Ferguson. Leach's name is still (peripherally) in the frame for The Ashes - however he is enjoying a torrid time at high flying Somerset. In and out of the first team, he has accrued just nine wickets since the resumption of the County Championship. He sits second bottom on the overall table with only Joe Burns below him. Two places above Leach sits Callum Ferguson who enjoyed a decent BBL but then had a spell away from the game. On his return to Worcestershire he has been largely anonymous. Thanks to a score of 103 against Derbyshire his average stands at 30 but if you remove that century it drops to 19.57. This week he scored 1 against Lancashire. He is one of just four players yet to reach over a thousand points and will be looking to turn the tide very soon.
Week
Glenn Maxwell - 244
Joe Root - 241
Jonny Bairstow - 196
Morne Morkel - 175
Shakib Al Hasan - 171
Virat Kohli - 132
Ben Stokes - 126
Jos Buttler - 124
Kane Williamson - 99
Rohit Sharma- 87
Wayne Parnell - 75
Rashid Khan - 55
Duanne Olivier - 43
Shubman Gill - 19
Shai Hope - 11
Jack Leach - 5
Callum Ferguson - 1
Kuldeep Yadav - 0
Mohammad Abbas - dnp
Joe Burns - dnp
Simon Harmer - dnp
Shreyas Iyer - dnp
Jeetan Patel - dnp
Abdur Razzak - dnp
Overall
Glenn Maxwell - 3626
Jeetan Patel - 2638
Joe Root- 2624
Jonny Bairstow - 2381
Rashid Khan - 2323
Simon Harmer - 2271
Shakib Al Hasan - 2224
Ben Stokes - 2160
Jos Buttler - 2132
Virat Kohli- 2054
Rohit Sharma - 1909
Shreyas Iyer - 1887
Duanne Olivier - 1852
Kane Williamson - 1715
Shai Hope - 1557
Wayne Parnell - 1540
Morne Morkel - 1502
Kuldeep Yadav - 1201
Mohammad Abbas - 1076
Shubman Gill - 1039
Callum Ferguson - 991
Abdur Razzak- 898
Jack Leach - 779
Joe Burns - 709
No comments:
Post a Comment