Ben Stokes - The Best Cricketer of the Week

 

Last week, only 6 Cricketers played.... this week only 6 players did NOT play. Crazy times.

Weekly

1. Ben Stokes - 273 - This is Stokes' 14th Cricketer of the Week award and was marked by his first century as Test Captain. He'll be hoping for another big one in the last Test. Moves up 5 whole places to 6th.

2. Mohammad Rizwan - 181 - Whilst Babar has underwhelmed in the Asia Cup, Rizwan has stepped into the breach perfectly with scores of 43 and 78.

3. Matt Critchley - 158 - Probably the only Welsh Fire player who can lift their heads up high after their torrid campaign. Will probably have earnt himself a gig next year with his late cameo.

4. Steve Smith - 125 - Cricket historians may remember this mythical figure who used to play cricket very regularly. Has been absent for an eye-watering 7 weeks & has only featured in 12 weeks Cricket this year. Back in the top 5 for 2 scores of < 40 but < than 50 vs Zimbabwe

5. Glenn Maxwell - 112 - A pretty decent showing for Maxwell, seeming as he wasn't asked to bat in the second ODI against Zimbabwe meaning he gets in the Top 5 from just 1 game.

Weekly

1. Simon Harmer - 4303 - Played this week but scored a mere 69 points. This is the first week where he has been active that he has seen a dip in his lead on second place. It. Is. Still. Four. Figures. Though.

2. Mohammad Rizwan - 3206 - Up to second place again after 5 weeks away. Has not left the Top 5 since the middle of February.

3. Moeen Ali - 3137 - A pretty underwhelming couple of outings for Birmingham Phoenix sees Moeen down a place to 3rd.

4. Rishabh Pant - 3056 - A bad week for Pant. Not selected for India's opening Asia Cup game against Pakistan and scored 0 in the second game versus Hong Kong. Down a place.

5. Babar Azam - 2718 - Scored the 3rd lowest total points of the week but still keeps 5th place locked in for a third straight week. Some Englishmen breathing down his neck though.

Other Movers

A lesser spotted David Warner was back in action this week and scored enough to move him up to 14th whilst Joe Root joins Stokes as an upwardly mobile Englishman. He is now 7th.

Ones to Watch

Until Bairstow's injury today we were in for a tasty three-way tussle. There are just 7 points between Stokes, Root and he in 6th, 7th and 8th. Even with Bairstow out of the game it is still something to look out for this week.

Top Three Averages

1. Simon Harmer = 204.91 (Down from 211.75)
2. Ben Stokes = 152.82 (Up from 145.31)
3. Babar Azam = 151 (Down from 158.77)
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It's odd how often the biggest improvement in average and the biggest decrease are both in the top three. Stokes's average went up by 7.51 whilst Azam's went down by 7.77.

Top Players By Format


Long Form - Simon Harmer = 3588
One Day - Babar Azam = 1002
Short Form - Moeen Ali = 2741

Highest Points by Discipline

Runs - Babar Azam = 1848
Batting Bonus - Babar Azam = 420
Strike Rate - Moeen Ali = 620

Wickets - Simon Harmer = 2020
Wicket Bonus - Simon Harmer = 360
Economy - Simon Harmer = 900

Fielding - Rishabh Pant = 640
Fielding Bonus - Rishabh Pant = 110

Weekly

Ben Stokes 273
Mohammad Rizwan 181
Matt Critchley 158
Steve Smith 125
Glenn Maxwell 112
David Warner 100
Joe Root 69
Simon Harmer 68
Bhanuka Rajapaksa 60
Jonny Bairstow 59
KL Rahul 46
Moeen Ali 45
Babar Azam 19
Quinton De Kock 8
Risabh Pant 0

Kyle Jamieson dnp
Marnus Labuschagne dnp
Pat Cummins dnp
Travis Head dnp
Hasan Ali dnp
Kane Williamson dnp

Overall

1 Simon Harmer 4303
2 Mohammad Rizwan 3206
3 Moeen Ali 3137
4 Rishabh Pant 3056
5 Babar Azam 2718
6 Ben Stokes 2598
7 Joe Root 2595
8 Jonny Bairstow 2593
9 Glenn Maxwell 2591
10 Quinton De Kock 2558
11 Marnus Labuschagne 2427
12 Matt Critchley 2131
13 Pat Cummins 1899
14 David Warner 1773
15 Hasan Ali 1681
16 Kyle Jamieson 1547
17 KL Rahul 1480
18 Travis Head 1314
19 Steve Smith 1125
20 Bhanuka Rajapaksa 789
21 Kane Williamson 671

Simon Harmer - The Best Cricketer of the Week

What constantly surprises me about or list is the way that nothing can help you predict what is going to happen. Last week Rashid Khan was going to stretch his lead at the top of the overall table due to him playing underwhelming Associate nations, JP Duminy was hardly going to play for Islamabad and I thought I had all world cricket sorted. This week another spectacular performance for (of all people) Simon Harmer sees him soar to the top of our weekly table for the second time and, perhaps more shockingly, usurp the likes of Virat Kohli and the aforementioned Messrs Duminy and Khan to be a newcomer at the top of the overall list. Harmer has now scored the highest and, this week, the third highest weekly scores of the year which has seen him lurch up the table to his unlikely spot at the head of world cricket. Some will say that two strong performances in the Sunfoil Series does not make a top quality bowler but, lest we forget, Harmer is the leading wicket taker in that competition and was the leading wicket taker for Essex in the County Championship Division One last season so maybe more eyes need to be drawn to him going forward. 

How wrong could I have got it last week? In my defence, how many people would have imagined Rashid Khan's Afghanistan being turned over against such cricketing powerhouses as Scotland and Hong Kong. Despite the team Under achievement, Khan's totals of 175 is enough for him to just about scrape into fifth place this week but that is his lowest placing in the last three weeks and he would have expected much more of himself. Maybe having a nineteen year old as captain was not the wisest decision by Afghanistan. 

Khan's total of 175 for the week is the same as Joe Root's however, somehow, the English man's yield does not seem as disappointing. This may be due to fact it came in two games against New Zealand rather than three against low ranking teams or maybe because it saw him score a long over due century. Either way it helps the England captain break into the top ten and put him on the cusp of being the second Englishman in the thousand club. We have not focussed on Root very much this year but he has been quietly plugging away in a style reminiscent of Mitch Marsh. This week he moved into 6th position of England's all time ODI run scorers with Alec Stewart's 4677 being the next on the horizon. With his more comfortable form of cricket coming up and some practice games before then, we could see Root ensconce in the top five as we progress through March. 

So another thing I got wrong was JP 'Bit Part' Duminy. I have been waiting for his inevitable slide down the overall table but it has still not come. This week was his highest scoring week in 2018, he played in all three Islambad games and top scored with 73* against Peshawar and he even silenced his critics who question his strike rate with all three of his strike rates over 80. He marginally overtakes Rashid Khan and now sits second overall after his compatriot Simon Harmer. With Khan now facing a spell without many games and with Islamabad looking the team to beat in the PSL, could the South African one-two continue? 

Aaron Finch and Jos Buttler were among last week's top point scorers. For Victoria and England respectively they impressed with the bat enough to firmly secure their place in the top ten and found themselves in seventh and sixth place respectively. This week has been something of a wild swing for the two men. The English wicket-keeper-batsmen got 20 points from his two matches this week - 135 less than the week before - whilst the veteran Australian got a measly 14 - a swing of 211 points from the previous week. This has seen them drop two overall places a piece and now are 8th and 9th respectively. This may be a problem for Buttler who is now facing a spell without games where players such as Joe Root or Kane Williamson may overtake him. Finch has a run of Sheffield Shield games which can help him bounce back. 

If we expected big things from the cohort of South African and Australian players in the league we have been disappointed. They have largely separated themselves into three packs; a duo right at the front comprising Mitchell Marsh (6th) and Nathan Lyon (7th), a mid table pack including the likes of Quinton De Kock, Steve Smith and AB De Villiers (14th, 15th and 16th) and then a group right down the bottom of Hashim Amla, Shaun Marsh and Dean Elgar (20th, 21st and 23rd). Whilst Marsh and and Elgar have not set the world alight this week, they registered scores above 50 which helped their overall score. On the other hand Hashim Amla has had another disappointing week scoring just 28 points - only 8 of which came from the bat. It has been three weeks since the veteran South African scored in triple figures for points - a feat he has only done 4 times in 2018. He needs to use the second Test against Australia as a springboard for what is starting to look like a disappointing series. 

Week

Simon Harmer - 424
JP Duminy - 247
Nathan Lyon - 224
Mitchell Marsh- 182
Rashid Khan - 175 
Joe Root - 175
Quinton de Kock- 173
Sunil Narine - 159 
AB De Villiers- 141
David Warner - 119
Steve Smith- 114
Dean Elgar - 81
Kane Williamson - 79
George Bailey - 75 
Shaun Marsh - 73
Hashim Amla - 28
Jos Buttler - 20
Aaron Finch - 14
Shakib Al Hasan - dnp 
Ravi Ashwin- dnp 
Jofra Archer - dnp 
Ravi Jadeja - dnp 
Virat Kohli - dnp 
Jeetan Patel - dnp 


Overall

Simon Harmer - 1593
JP Duminy - 1525
Rashid Khan - 1524
Sunil Narine- 1334
Virat Kohli- 1231
Mitchell Marsh - 1121
Nathan Lyon - 1058
Jos Buttler - 1026
Aaron Finch - 974
Joe Root - 947
Kane Williamson -906
Ravi Ashwin - 810
Shakib Al Hasan - 608
Quinton de Kock - 581
Steve Smith - 577
AB De Villiers- 564
David Warner - 554
Jofra Archer - 550
George Bailey - 514
Hashim Amla - 495
Shaun Marsh- 481
Dean Elgar- 475
Ravi Jadeja - 412
Jeetan Patel - 108

Aaron Finch - The Best Cricketer of the Week

I have had to delve into some more obscure cricketing territories this week to locate the best performances from our top Cricketers. With only England and New Zealand completing games from the top teams, we have had to rely on some unusual games and domestic tournaments for our big hitters. First to Perth, where our top scoring cricketer of the week, Aaron Finch, seemed to forget he wasn't playing limited overs cricket and scored with the pace of a speeding bullet. The Victorian Superman got his unbeaten 151 in a mere 122 balls in the win against Western Australia in the Sheffield Shield. In a week where he said he has aspirations of returning to the national team, he has done himself no harm and finds himself on the brink of being the seventh player in our league to break the thousand point barrier. 

Yes, his week has been modest in comparison to recent weeks but over in Zimbabwe, Rashid Khan has done enough to secure himself second spot for the week and, more importantly, overtake three other players to take pride of place in the overall top point scorers. This comes in the same week where it was announced he will become the youngest cricketer to captain a national side when his team take part in the World Cup Qualifiers. These Qualifiers see Khan face up against teams such as Scotland and Hong Kong so, with Kohli not playing and Duminy appearing sporadically for Islamabad United, we may see the Afghanistan spinner pull away from the pack. 

Here we can return to more high profile cricketing venues and compare the performances of Jos Buttler and Kane Williamson. Buttler finds himself sixth in our overall table and has been quietly plugging away with fairly regular weekly scores in the three figures. This week it has been his strike rate that has caught the eye; he has scored 36 off 30 and 29 off 31 against New Zealand. Whilst we all know Buttler is capable of big hitting, it has not been hugely prevalent in his game of late. He is putting this right now. Could he, like Finch, see a return to Test cricket? 

Williamson is another player who is settling scores. Last week I said he needed some big performances to push his way into the top ten. I also said that he was having a torrid February. New Zealand seem to have solved this problem and took decisive action, dropping him for the February 28th game only for him to return on March 3rd a new man. His 112* may not have won the game for his team but saw him squeak above Ravi Ashwin into tenth place. The next player in his sights is Nathan Lyon, who is doing well against South Africa, so he needs to ensure his March form continues in the two ODIs coming up this week. 

As one Cricketer's luck changes positively, we see two Cricketers whose luck appears to be on a reverse trajectory. Ravi Jadeja, who at one point looked capable of doing a Sunil Narine and spurting up the table, has been underwhelming for a number of weeks now. Despite Saurashtra reaching the final of the Vijay Hazare Trophy, the bowler has not been trusted with the ball since February 11th and his batting performances have been underwhelming. He appears rooted near the bottom of the table and, when the Australians and South Africans cash in their points for the First Test, will be second bottom only to (all together now) Jeetan Patel. 

He was once jostling for position with our new overall leader Rashid Khan but young English bowler Jofra Archer has now been ruled out of the PSL with a side strain. With perennial injury plagued players like Tymal Mills looming large in our mind we hope that Archer will not be one of these players who burns out. One thing that we can be sure of is that he is going to remain on his overall total of 550 and drop down the table. 

Week

Aaron Finch - 225
Rashid Khan - 183
Jos Buttler - 155 
Kane Williamson - 152 
Sunil Narine - 139
JP Duminy - 88
George Bailey - 44
Joe Root - 39
Ravi Jadeja - 15
Shakib Al Hasan - dnp 
Hashim Amla - dnp 
Jofra Archer - dnp 
Ravi Ashwin - dnp 
Quinton de Kock - dnp 
AB De Villiers- dnp 
Dean Elgar - dnp 
Simon Harmer - dnp 
Virat Kohli - dnp 
Nathan Lyon - dnp 
Mitchell Marsh - dnp 
Shaun Marsh - dnp 
Jeetan Patel - dnp 
Steve Smith - dnp 
David Warner - dnp 

Overall

Rashid Khan - 1349
JP Duminy - 1278
Virat Kohli- 1231
Sunil Narine- 1175
Simon Harmer - 1169
Jos Buttler - 1006
Aaron Finch - 960
Mitchell Marsh - 939
Nathan Lyon - 834
Kane Williamson -827
Ravi Ashwin - 810
Joe Root - 772
Shakib Al Hasan - 608
Jofra Archer - 550
Hashim Amla - 467
Steve Smith - 463
George Bailey - 439
David Warner - 435
AB De Villiers- 423
Quinton de Kock - 408
Ravi Jadeja - 412
Shaun Marsh- 408
Dean Elgar- 394
Jeetan Patel - 108