Simon Harmer - The Best Cricketer of the Week

 

Weekly

1. Simon Harmer - 659 - A record breaking week for Harmer. His weekly total is the highest ever recorded on our List - overtaking Marnus Labuschagne 641 from this time last year. It is also his 30th time topping the Weekly List. His nearest rival is Stokes with just 13.

2. Jonny Bairstow - 373 - In only 24 weeks between now and 2018 would Bairstow's total last week not have seen him top the weekly List but such is the vagaries of the English Summer. YJB moves up an astronomical 5 places to 12th on the overall List.

3. Mohammad Rizwan - 270 - His return stint to Sussex has yielded two successive 200 points weeks before he jogs back off to represent Pakistan later this month.

4. Joe Root - 181 - More of an all round performance from Honest Joe this week but 86* is never to be sniffed at. He is up to seventh place - his highest position of the year so far.

5. Rishabh Pant - 126 - Leicestershire's Rishabh Pant.....yes, that's right....warmed up for the Eng vs Ind series with a comfortable cameo for the County setup.

Overall

1. Simon Harmer - 3339 - When you are already leading the pack and then get the highest points score ever, you are very likely to continue in top spot. In fact, it might be a very long while until we see anybody eat into Harmer's 758 lead.

2. Mohammad Rizwan - 2581 - Rizwan has 'done a Labuschagne' and used a spell at a Division Two team to shore up his position in the Top 5. He now has a fortnight off but the gap between second and third is the third largest on our list.

3. Marnus Labuschagne - 2221 - Scored the second lowest total of the week...but still managed to move up into third.

4. Glenn Maxwell - 2203 - Despite the hype, was inactive this week and drops a place because of it.

5. Rishabh Pant - 2126 - Started his mini tour of England with a good game for Leicestershire and moves back into the Top 5 again after 2 weeks away.

Ones To Watch

Again it is Labuschagne and Maxwell. Marnus is now 18 ahead of Glenn but, should Maxi play, it is all up for grabs.

Top Three Averages

1. Simon Harmer = 208.69 (Up from 178.67)
2. Babar Azam = 157.33
3. Ben Stokes = 156.42 (Down from 167.18)

A fortnight ago, Harmer was the biggest loser and Stokes the biggest winner - this week it is reversed....however both hold on to their place in the Top 3.

Top Players By Format

Long Form - Simon Harmer = 2786
One Day - Travis Head = 680
Short Form - Moeen Ali = 1776

Highest Points by Discipline

*=New Name

Runs - *Mohammad Rizwan - 1451
Batting Bonus - Mohammad Rizwan - 320
Strike Rate - Glenn Maxwell = 480

Wickets - Simon Harmer = 1520
Wicket Bonus - Simon Harmer = 280
Economy - Simon Harmer = 700

Fielding - Rishabh Pant = 450
Fielding Bonus - Rishabh Pant = 70

Weekly

Simon Harmer 659
Jonny Bairstow 373
Mohammad Rizwan 270
Joe Root 181
Risabh Pant 126
Kane Williamson 109
Travis Head 106
Pat Cummins 96
David Warner 95
Ben Stokes 38
Moeen Ali 34
Marnus Labuschagne 23
Steve Smith 16

KL Rahul dnp
Babar Azam dnp
Hasan Ali dnp
Kyle Jamieson dnp
Quinton De Kock dnp
Bhanuka Rajapaksa dnp
Glenn Maxwell dnp
Matt Critchley dnp

Overall

1 Simon Harmer 3339
2 Mohammad Rizwan 2581
3 Marnus Labuschagne 2221
4 Glenn Maxwell 2203
5 Rishabh Pant 2126
6 Quinton De Kock 2108
7 Joe Root 1987
8 Moeen Ali 1928
9 Babar Azam 1888
10 Ben Stokes 1877
11 Pat Cummins 1818
12 Jonny Bairstow 1743
13 David Warner 1644
14 Matt Critchley 1560
15 Kyle Jamieson 1547
16 Hasan Ali 1407
17 KL Rahul 1383
18 Travis Head 1267
19 Steve Smith 825
20 Bhanuka Rajapaksa 623
21 Kane Williamson 502

Moeen Ali - The Best Cricketer of the Week

 

Only two players to complete games so far this week but quite a few shifts to consider.

Moeen Ali gets his inaugural Cricketer of the Week accolade, not for tearing it up in Chennai but for warming up for the Blast in a Worcestershire 2nd XI game at Barnt Green. His 82 points is now the lowest weekly high score since the start of 2019. He moves up 2 spots to 11th.

Peter Handscomb was the only other active player in the last week. His OK-ish score of 62 against Leicestershire is enough to see him jump 2 places and knock Ashwin out the Top 5. Handscomb has been 5th for 6 weeks out of the last 12 but never stays there longer than a fortnight.

Apart from Handscomb, the Top 5 remains unchanged

1. Marnus Labuschagne - 2115
2. Joe Root - 2039
3. Simon Harmer - 1708
4. Babar Azam - 1595
5. Peter Handscomb - 1495

Excitingly, all of those top 4 will be completing games over the next few days so it could all change.

Highest Players by Format

Long Form - Joe Root - 2039
50 Over - Nicholas Pooran - 431
T20 - Glenn Maxwell - 1294

Top 3 Averages

1. Simon Harmer - 213.5
2. Ravichandran Ashwin - 185.63
3. Joe Root - 169.92

Despite top-scoring for the week, Ali's score of 82 hit his previous average of 174 points per active week quite hard. He drops out of the Top 3 and is replaced by Joe Root.

Highest Points by Discipline

Runs - Marnus Labuschagne = 1185
Batting Bonus - *Joe Root = 210
Strike Rate - Glenn Maxwell - 280

Wickets = Simon Harmer= 720
Wicket Bonus - Ravichandran Ashwin and Simon Harmer - 170
Economy - * Simon Harmer - 390

Fielding – Quinton De Kock – 290
Fielding Bonus - Quinton De Kock - 60

Longest Inactive Player

Ben Stokes (7 weeks)

Week

Moeen Ali - 82
Peter Handscomb- 62

Ravichandran Ashwin- dnp
Babar Azam - dnp
Jasprit Bumrah - dnp
Quinton De Kock - dnp
Simon Harmer - dnp
Virat Kohli- dnp
Marnus Labuschagne- dnp
Dawid Malan- dnp
Glenn Maxwell - dnp
Nicholas Pooran- dnp
Joe Root- dnp
Peter Siddle- dnp
Steve Smith- dnp
Ben Stokes- dnp
David Warner - dnp
Kane Williamson - dnp

Total

Marnus Labuschagne- 2115
Joe Root - 2039
Simon Harmer - 1708
Babar Azam - 1594
Peter Handscomb- 1495
Ravichandran Ashwin - 1485
Peter Siddle - 1406
Glenn Maxwell - 1288
Virat Kohli- 1210
Nicholas Pooran - 1127
Moeen Ali - 1126
Ben Stokes - 1057
Steve Smith - 1010
Kane Williamson - 885
David Warner - 842
Quinton de Kock - 829
Dawid Malan - 791
Jasprit Bumrah - 539

Lewis Gregory - The Best Cricketer of the Week

Lewis Gregory was not supposed to be the runaway star of the Bob Willis Trophy final. Simon Harmer has outperformed him in all metrics up until last weekend. Harmer's 38 wickets across the competition was eight more than second placed Craig Overton and 20 more than Gregory's. Harmer's form has seen him win Cricketer of the Week three times in the eight weeks of the tournament. The first was a huge 453 point haul where he took 14 wickets across a single match against Surrey. Over the last eight weeks Harmer has managed to top our list of average points per active week with 254.57 - 54.21 more than second placed Ben Stokes. In comparison, Lewis Gregory has only won Cricketer of the Week once this year. This fell in February where his 185 points playing for the England Lions gave him the ninth lowest winning score since the list started. On his return from England duty, his average points per active game week was 118.31 - 190.89 fewer than Harmer's. On top of all this - Somerset lost.....well drew....but lost. But that is enough of what should have been because it was Gregory who blew Harmer away to get his second Cricketer of the Week accolade. And you can't begrudge him it. Since returning from international duty, Gregory has gone from strength to strength. From being the seventh lowest in terms of points per week he is now eight highest on 132.88. This has seen the Somerset player get within 78 points of second placed Ben Stokes. This being said, Gregory is now going to have a period away from the game whilst Stokes is currently on a plane to join up with Rajasthan. Gregory's place in the top three might be in jeopardy as the IPL continues but the last month has salvaged his year. Rather than him being a player that has played a lot of average cricket over the year, his epitaph might be that he's had a pretty decent domestic year.

By all accounts Colin Ackermann is another player who has made hay in the delayed English summer. His average points over the last 8 weeks stands at 179.38 - enough to see him third on the table. He has also burst upwards after bnot featuring on the list to eventually coming to land in ninth place. The last two T20 Blast performances helped him to creep into that top ten position. Three wickets out of nowhere against Lancashire and Nottinghamshire saw Leicestershire extend their run in the competition. It also saw Ackermann add another 322 points to his total. Across the course of the competition, Ackermann scored 682 points. This is 219 more than Simon Harmer managed. His average points per game across this time was 75.78. This is genuinely rather than impressive. If we were to correlate points to the influence a player has in the game (which isn't an exact science) we could argue that Ackermann has been more impressive than any of our IPL players. As we stand Smith's average per game is 70.67 with with Sharma second on 67.5. This is not a like for like comparison and if Mohammad Nabi or Jason Holder had played more we would have a fairer comparison. It is safe to say that Ackermann is an influential T20 presence. He is another one of these players that it is hard to envisage playing too much more cricket this year. Unless the Netherlands have play over the next three months, Ackermann's total of 1935 might be his final score.

Whoever you look at in our list of IPL players one word springs to mind. Inconsistency. There is only one player who has steadily improved as the competition has gone on and that is David Warner. This can largely be put down to the fact that the Hyderabad opener has an incredibly poor game scoring 6 against Bangalore. Like all good competitors he got off the canvas and got his highest points in the tournament in the very next game. He scored 66 points against Kolkata - 36 of which were from runs. This saw him averaging 36 points per game. After this came 45 runs and 65 points against Delhi - bumping his average points up to 45.67. Yesterday's game against Chennai was something of a backward step in terms of runs (28) and points (48) but his average went up a jot to 46.25. In the grand scheme of things Wanrer's performance are average but consistently improving. In tournaments like the IPL this is the recipe for success. Looking at the names above Warner for total points and average points, they are up and down like yo-yos. Sharma's average points went up by 63 points before dropping 23 and then going back up to 67.5. Smith started very strongly but has had a sharp dip in form. Whereas Warner is quietly improving. If Warner can do anything quietly. He got the third highest score of anyone this week. He is also now 92 points away from re entering the top ten for the first time since lockdown. There is quite a bunch of antipodean IPL players in front of him in the form of Maxwell and Smith but you'd put your money on slow and steady winning the race.

Week


Lewis Gregory - 260
Shubman Gill - 187
David Warner - 179
Colin Ackermann - 153
Simon Harmer - 140
Rohit Sharma - 138
Steve Smith- 103
Aaron Finch- 92
Glenn Maxwell - 24
Mohammad Nabi- 21
Virat Kohli - 7


Kyle Abbott- dnp
Babar Azam - dnp
Tom Banton - dnp
Martin Guptill- dnp
Peter Handscomb - dnp
Travis Head - dnp
Jason Holder - dnp
Marnus Labuschagne- dnp
Keshav Maharaj- dnp
Joe Root - dnp
Ben Stokes - dnp


Overall


Joe Root - 2286
Ben Stokes - 2204
Lewis Gregory - 2126
Simon Harmer - 1922
Babar Azam - 1835
Jason Holder- 1691
Aaron Finch - 1634
Mohammad Nabi - 1458
Colin Ackermann - 1435
Glenn Maxwell - 1377
Steve Smith - 1372
Marnus Labuschagne - 1337
David Warner - 1285
Martin Guptill - 1243
Keshav Maharaj - 1176
Tom Banton - 1048
Shubman Gill - 946
Travis Head - 901
Virat Kohli - 831
Rohit Sharma - 741
Peter Handscomb - 383

Colin Ackermann - The Best Cricketer of the Week

 

That the IPL started this week is going to be superfluous to this week's post. This is not due to the snobbish high-minded attitude I have seen from many on social media. Instead it is because some of the biggest movers up the list can are found in the T20 Blast this week. The best performance of any player over the last 7 days came not in the sweltering heat of Dubai but instead under the watery sunshine of Manchester. At the start of last Sunday, Leicestershire didn't stand much of a chance of progressing. They needed to beat Lancashire and hope that other results would fall in their favour. Halfway through the Lancashire innings it looked a fait accompli as Alex Davies and Steven Croft were in full control. That was when Ackermann took charge. Ackermann's 2020 campaign will not be as well remembered as last year's where he claimed a record seven wickets against Warwickshire however he has still looked comfortable. In comparison to his fellow All Rounder Simon Harmer he scored 114 more runs at a better average strike rate. With the ball he gained exactly the same points for his economy rate and was only one wicket behind the Essex player. Despite playing two fewer games, the Leicestershire captain scored 65 points more. His effect was never felt more than in the 16th over where he claimed three wickets in four balls to turn the game on it's head. He finished with figures of 3-18 to go alongside his 28 ball 29 with the bat. Ironically it was the team that he humiliated last year, Warwickshire, who Leicestershire pipped to the post for qualification. Ackermann averages 75.57 points per game played and has at least one further game in the competition. If he achieves at least his average score against Nottinghamshire he will move up two places and into the top ten. The issue is that, like Simon Harmer, this is seemingly his last Cricket of the year. The Saffer needs to make hay while the sun shines as the clouds are drawing in.

Joe Root's return was a belated boost for Yorkshire's unsuccessful Blast campaign. The England Test captain has been determined to prove his point to the England selectors that he still has a role in the shortest form of the game. Anyone that has come up against the White Rose whilst he was playing would struggle to disagree. Root has the third highest average for runs in the competition with 69.5 across his five games and has also chipped in with some wickets to boost his score. Whilst he did not help to pull Yorkshire's hopes out the fire he has pushed his agenda for England. As well as this he has also muscled his way to the top of our overall list. Thus ends Ben Stokes 10 week reign at the top of the list. When Stokes signed off from England duty to be with his father who was in ill health, the gap between himself and Root was 774 points. At the time of his departure to New Zealand, Stokes was averaging 200.36 points per active week. At the same time, Root's average was 135.3. Even after this spell of exceptional T20 form, the Yorkshireman's average is only 152.4. In this very unusual year, Root's ascension to the head of the table is even more reliant on the inactivity of others.

Lewis Gregory is our final Englishman to have made positive steps for his County. Much like Root, Gregory was under baked for his national team but returned to Somerset to look the real deal once more. In September, where he has just played for Somerset, Gregory has picked up 724 points. Whilst with England he gained 323 from four intra squad games and three ODIs. There is nothing revelatory here. The standard of batsmen he faces with the ball and bowlers he faces with the bat will be of a lower standard in the Blast than internationally. However the difference is stark. His position in the overall list has hugely improved in this time too. Just over two months ago Gregory reached his lowest overall place of 12th. This week he moves into the top three for the first time. As I have written before, a lot of this can be put down to the fact that Gregory has played the second most Cricket of anyone on our list. This week was his 15th active week out of 37 - however his average scores per week have also markedly improved. As little as a fortnight ago he had the seventh lowest weekly score at 118.31. His run in the Blast and the Bob Willis Trophy has seen him improve by four places - his current score is 124.4 per week. This places him higher than luminaries such as Aaron Finch (118.62) and Babar Azam (114.69). Yes, Gregory's third place position is flattering - but he has made a huge improvement.

Week


Colin Ackermann- 169
Rohit Sharma - 132
Lewis Gregory - 130
Joe Root- 130
Steve Smith - 109
Aaron Finch- 89
Babar Azam - 82
Simon Harmer - 62
Virat Kohli- 35
Glenn Maxwell - 26
Shubman Gill - 7
David Warner - 6


Tom Banton - dnp
Martin Guptill- dnp
Peter Handscomb- dnp
Travis Head- dnp
Jason Holder- dnp
Marnus Labuschagne- dnp
Keshav Maharaj- dnp
Mohammad Nabi- dnp
Ben Stokes - dnp


Overall


Joe Root - 2286
Ben Stokes - 2204
Lewis Gregory - 1866
Babar Azam - 1835
Simon Harmer - 1782
Jason Holder- 1691
Aaron Finch - 1542
Mohammad Nabi - 1437
Glenn Maxwell - 1353
Marnus Labuschagne - 1337
Colin Ackermann - 1282
Steve Smith - 1269
Martin Guptill - 1243
Keshav Maharaj - 1176
David Warner - 1106
Tom Banton - 1048
Travis Head - 901
Virat Kohli - 824
Shubman Gill - 759
Rohit Sharma - 603
Peter Handscomb - 383