Nathan Lyon - The Best Cricketer of the Week

What has become startlingly clear this week is that a team's success does not necessarily mean guaranteed points for key members of that team. Australia have been absolutely drubbed in the UAE - a series that will be best remembered for the Aussies batting for a draw in an impressive fashion but one that was not overly congruent with the combative style of play Australia like to associate themselves with. Despite this Nathan Lyon has managed to stand above a somewhat unimpressive cast of misfits to deliver some of his best figures on the sub continent and claim Cricketer of the Week in the process. His eight wickets were added to Lyon's customary low economy and plethora of maidens to push his score over the 300 mark for the second time in three weeks. The under rated spin bowler now sits thirteenth on our overall list. Moving up that overall list but (quite dramatically) down the weekly list, Virat Kohli provides the antithesis of Nathan Lyon. His India team were even more dominant over the West Indies than Pakistan over Australia but the India captain got only 45 points to show from this. It is often the case with these dominating wins that it can disadvantage certain players and it seems that Kohli feels the brunt of these more often than most. Not that he will overly mind as he sits in sixth place with his more favoured ODI matches on the horizon. 

Whilst we have focused on some other low performing Cricketers in these posts as the weeks have gone by, Shaun Marsh has gone unnoticed but, as the likes of his brother Mitchell and Ravi Jadeja move up, we see Shaun Marsh just above the trio of David Warner, Steve Smith and George Bailey in 21st place. His poor performance in this tour of the UAE has put his place in the Australia squad under question but his form has been poor for a long time before that. Excluding bowlers, wicket keepers and allrounders, Marsh has the eighth lowest batting average of any Australian batsman over the last one hundred years and averages just 8.8 in his last ten innings. In terms of all his performances this year he has hardly set the world alight either. His highest point scoring Week came in Week 24 when his 215 points saw him claim top spot for his One Day performances against England - however his overall average for his twenty active weeks sits at just 82.8. The injury plagued star could blame his injury plagued-ness for this and he will hope to return to form in 2018 - but at 35 years old, Marsh the Second does not have time on his hands. 

341 points this week proves the theory that Rashid Khan can always be relied on in the latter stages of tournaments. We have seen this time and time again and Kabul have a lot to thank their captain for as they have progressed to the inaugural APL final. This week has proved a further feather in the cap for those who think that Rashid could turn into a decent allrounder, starting with an awesome 27 off 8 balls against Kandahar and then a more sedate 35 off 19 coupled with bowling figures of 4/20 in the Semi-Final against Paktia. We will see this afternoon if Rashid can take the cherry on the cake and lift his country's first domestic trophy to top off a very impressive 2018 for the young Afghanistan player. 

Week

Nathan Lyon - 353 
Rashid Khan - 341 
Jeetan Patel - 215
Ravi Ashwin - 210
Ravi Jadeja - 190 
Simon Harmer - 162
Mitchell Marsh- 143
Joe Root- 141
Jos Buttler- 128 
Aaron Finch- 70
Dean Elgar - 51
Virat Kohli- 45 
Sunil Narine - 33
George Bailey - 12
Shaun Marsh - 7 
Shakib Al Hasan - dnp 
Hashim Amla- dnp 
Jofra Archer- dnp 
Quinton De Kock- dnp 
AB De Villiers- dnp 
JP Duminy- dnp 
Steve Smith - dnp 
David Warner - dnp 
Kane Williamson - dnp 

Overall

Simon Harmer - 6187
Rashid Khan - 5522
Jeetan Patel - 5311
Jos Buttler - 4102
Sunil Narine- 3887
Virat Kohli- 3716
Jofra Archer - 3578
Aaron Finch - 3648
Joe Root - 3646
Kane Williamson - 3287
Ravi Ashwin - 3028
Shakib Al Hasan - 2886
Nathan Lyon - 2727
JP Duminy - 2496
Ravi Jadeja - 2447
Quinton de Kock - 2121
Hashim Amla - 2091
Mitchell Marsh - 2085
Dean Elgar- 2047
AB De Villiers- 2010
Shaun Marsh- 1656
David Warner - 1401
Steve Smith - 1350
George Bailey - 981

Sunil Narine - The Best Cricketer of the Week

NB: Scores do not include this morning's ODI between Sri Lanka and England. 

He has been on the sidelines for many a week but Sunil Narine's return to Trinidad and Tobago (alongside the added benefit of playing three games in a week) sees the mystery spinner top the charts for the first time since April. Despite an underwhelming CPL, Narine has been back to his best in his second favourite tournament and has bagged two threefers this week to earn his table-topping 305 points. He has also been the biggest mover on the overall charts overtaking Virat Kohli, Jofra Archer and Jos Buttler to reclaim fourth position with consummate ease. The Autumn and Winter could be a very productive time for the West Indian if he follows an effective Regional Super 50 with being picked up by a Big Bash team for the Winter. Narine has not been the only person to prosper due to the amount of games he has played this week. Rashid Khan has managed to claim second place for the week and overtake Jeetan Patel and take second place on the overall table with solid (but not spectacular) performances for Kabul in the inaugural Afghanistan Premier League. What is interesting is another strong performance with the bat from the talismanic Afghanistani spinner. It seems fortuitous that Narine and Rashid finish first and second, as many people are saying that Rashid could follow in the footsteps of Narine in turning his hand to being a high impact destructive opening batsman as well a genuine wicket taking threat. If so, the points he would pick up would be insane. 

Wickets tumbled for Nathan Lyon in the warm up game against Pakistan A, however that particular column was more subdued in the hugely entertaining first Test against the big boys. This despite him becoming the fifth highest wicket taker in Australian history. One area that Lyon did thrive in was through his stingy economy and his regularity of maidens - 18 overall across the two innings. On a track that seemed eminently batsmen friendly this is no mean feat. After struggling in his last foray in the UAE, it was important for Lyon to retain his composure - a task that he can say that he succeeded in. His lowly position of fourteenth on the overall table speaks for his lack of cricket this year rather than a decline in form. Another Aussie that seemed quietly confident was debutant Aaron Finch. Finch is one of those players that has always been deemed not suitable for Test selection however looked more than comfortable in his opening salvos with a 49 and 62 to continue his fine year. He is currently at ninth, his lowest placing on the overall table for many months due to the fact that he is not playing as regularly as he was at Surrey, however this performance has won him many more plaudits than points. 

Low scores do no t always mean bad Cricketers. We have seen that with Lyon this last few weeks and with Ravi Jadeja this last few months - but one player that I think has been hard done by this year is Quinton De Kock. The South African wicket keeper batsman has always looked so impressive when he is selected - but has not been treated poorly this year. After being dropped from the Bangalore set up in the IPL and withdrawn from a spell in the County Championship, he has had to rely solely on performances for South Africa. This has obviously limited his playing time hugely across the year. This week was only his 15th point scoring week in 2018 with his average score per week at 107. This sort of solid grinding performance can be really dangerous for a team and, if trusted, QDK can be flawless with both bat and gloves. If he had played his full compliment of games, he would have been far higher than his sixteenth place. 

Week

Sunil Narine - 305 
Rashid Khan - 245 
Nathan Lyon - 241
Aaron Finch - 141
Quinton De Kock- 101
JP Duminy- 99
Jeetan Patel - 85
Kane Williamson - 84
Mitchell Marsh- 52
Nathan Lyon - 31
Shaun Marsh - 7
Shakib Al Hasan - dnp 
Hashim Amla- dnp 
Jofra Archer - dnp 
Ravi Ashwin - dnp 
Jos Buttler - dnp 
AB De Villiers- dnp 
Dean Elgar- dnp 
Ravi Jadeja- dnp 
Virat Kohli- dnp 
Simon Harmer - dnp 
Joe Root - dnp 
Steve Smith - dnp 
David Warner - dnp 

Overall

Simon Harmer - 6025
Rashid Khan - 5181
Jeetan Patel - 5096
Sunil Narine- 3854
Jofra Archer - 3578
Jos Buttler - 3974
Virat Kohli- 3671
Joe Root - 3505
Aaron Finch - 3437
Kane Williamson - 3287
Shakib Al Hasan - 2886
Ravi Ashwin - 2818
JP Duminy - 2496
Nathan Lyon - 2374
Ravi Jadeja - 2257
Quinton de Kock - 2121
Hashim Amla - 2091
AB De Villiers- 2010
Dean Elgar- 1996
Mitchell Marsh - 1942
Shaun Marsh- 1649
David Warner - 1401
Steve Smith - 1350
George Bailey - 969