Simon Harmer - The Best Cricketer of the Week

 

Weekly Top 5

1. Simon Harmer = 276 - Harmer is having a lean year and we have not seen those massive scores that he is capable of. This is only his second Cricketer of the Week Award, for a man who has had 24 over the previous 3 years that is nothing. Here he is though.

2. Sam Curran - 142 - Really has switched on his all-rounder mode over the last few weeks. Did it again to take Surrey to T20 Blast Finals Day with 52 and a wicket.

3. Travis Head - 140 - Up until this afternoon was odds on to be Cricketer of the Week having scored 140 points in a blockbuster innings of 80 off 25 balls in the first T20 against Scotland....he then got 0 in the second one.

4. Harry Brook - 111 - Another grinding couple of innings that characterise Brook's role in the England team. He moves up a place in the Overall list to replace Jadeja in 16th place.

5. Mitchell Marsh - 109 - Up until this week was the second longest inactive player on the list; returns with an OK score of 109. This is even more impressive by the fact that he neither batted nor bowled in the 2nd match against Scotland on Friday.

Overall Top 5

1. Chamari Athapaththu - 3753 - Inactive this week. Has a gap of 210 to second place.

2. James Vince - 3543 - A rather limp yield of 15 points for Vince this week means there is no pressure from him on top spot. There is a cushion of 604 points between him and third however so not too much to worry about in the short term.

3. Sam Curran - 2939 - Holds third spot and looks likely to do so for a little while longer with a fair bit of cricket for him to play in the coming weeks and a fair whack of points both above and below him.

4. Travis Head - 2726 - His domineering display against Scotland sees him up a place to 4th. He has never been higher.

5. Babar Azam - 2711 - Just 42 points this week and he drops down a further place into 5th. It is a massive downfall for Azam who has only spent his first week of the year outside the Top 5 and once had twice gave himself a 600+ point gap in first place.

Ones To Watch

The rather unimpressive Aaron Hardie (If selected for some or all of the remaining games in the tour of the UK) might have the ability to overtake Steve Smith, Mitchell Marsh and Daryl Mitchell who he is all within 285 points of.

Top Three Averages

1. Chamari Athapaththu - 187.65
2. Babar Azam - 142.68 (Down from 148.28)
3. Marnus Labuschagne - 132.44

Babar Azam drops the most this week (-5.9) but still holds onto the second highest average overall. Mitchell Marsh's average rises from awful (75.87) to bad (77.94)

Highest scorer by Format

* = New Name

Long Form = Simon Harmer = 1724
One Day = Chamari Athapaththu = 946
Short Form = *Sam Curran - 2851

Highest scorer by Discipline

Runs - James Vince - 2123
Batting Bonus - Travis Head = 320
Strike Rate - James Vince = 690

Wickets - Sam Curran = 980
Wicket Bonus - Simon Harmer = 180
Economy - Simon Harmer - 590

Fielding – James Vince = 410
Fielding Bonus - James Vince - 30

Shaun Marsh - The Best Cricketer of the Week

Lionel Messi and Argentina are very much in the thoughts of those of us whose sporting proclivities also lean towards Football. For those who don't know - an eminently talented player weighted down by a country's gaze could not lift an unbalanced team away from humiliation. I do not know how keen Cricketer of the Week Shaun Marsh and his team mate Aaron Finch are on soccer but they might feel a certain affinity with the diminutive Argentinian captain. Whilst the eldest Marsh brother claims the title of Cricketer of the Week, a mere five points (or half a catch) separates him from the newly invigorated Australian opener Finch. Despite their impressive individual scores they are on the verge of being whitewashed by England - and have been on the receiving end of some of the most damaging scenes with a bat since Bruce Wayne fell down that well. If there were any bowlers on this list this year (something I doubt will be an occurrence next year as well) I feel their points total would be something of a different tale. As old fashioned batsmen, Marsh and Finch, who offer very little even in the field, have been largely protected from the decimation offered by Bairstow and Roy. Marsh's performances over the last fortnight has seen him improve his position on our overall table. He now raises himself to the dizzying heights of 16th and is a mere 4 points off Dean Elgar. With the final ODI today, a few runs would see him placed eminently midtable - especially if he improves his strike rate which has been laconic at best. 

Nathan Lyon returned to the fray this week after a lengthily absence of ten weeks. Whilst his 33 points do not represent a particularly good week, he will be happy to be featuring in a cricket game - especially in the one day format. Whilst his week's points are nothing to be proud about, the Australian spinner was so prolific in the early months of the year that, despite his ten week absence, he is still in our top ten overall. He finds himself just below AB De Villiers, who had a whole IPL season, and JP Duminy, who similar to him had a stonking start to the year but has tailed off. With the success rate of English spinners, we may well see the Goat return in this last ODI to pick up some more points. 

There was only one player who was active this week that was not involved in the Anglo-Australian tussle. Having learnt he would be eligible for England for next year's Ashes, Jofra Archer responded with 182 points - his second highest weekly score of 2018. Whilst he is usually seen as a wicket taker, the Sussex man did a good job of strangling the opposition this week and picked up 35 points from maidens against Durham. He joins Shaun Marsh in slowly creeping up the table putting real daylight between himself and Quinton de Kock, who is now 117 points behind him. With the T20 Blast imminent we could see the English bowler really blast up the table. 

Canada have not been on the cricketing scene for many a year. Rewind a decade and they were one of the more competent Associate nations but poor decisions and mismanagement have seen the likes of Ireland, Afghanistan, Netherlands and Scotland overshadow them. No wonder Steve Smith and David Warner felt an affinity towards the newly formed Global T20 Canada tournament having been overshadowed this year by scandal. The two prolific batsman begin their campaigns this week with Smith's Toronto Nationals kicking the tournament off on Thursday and Warner's Winnipeg Hawks making their bow the following day. Could we see them register enough points to make them credible in our overall table? They are desperately off the pace with a gulf of 449 points between Warner and nearest rival Ravi Jadeja. Only time will tell if their form and the expected amateur nature of some of the Canadian bowlers might throw a few surprises at us. 

Week

Shaun Marsh - 195
Aaron Finch - 190
Jofra Archer - 182
Jos Buttler - 165 
Joe Root - 51
Nathan Lyon - 33

Hashim Amla- dnp 
Ravi Ashwin- dnp 
George Bailey - dnp 
Quinton De Kock- dnp 
AB De Villiers- dnp 
JP Duminy- dnp 
Dean Elgar - dnp 
Simon Harmer - dnp 
Rashid Khan - dnp 
Virat Kohli- dnp 
Mitchell Marsh- dnp 
Sunil Narine- dnp 
Jeetan Patel - dnp 
Steve Smith - dnp 
David Warner - dnp 
Kane Williamson - dnp 

Overall

Simon Harmer - 3541
Rashid Khan - 3342
Jeetan Patel - 2879
Sunil Narine- 2617
Jos Buttler - 2610
Kane Williamson -2405
Joe Root - 2189
Virat Kohli- 2171
AB De Villiers- 2010
Nathan Lyon - 1822
JP Duminy - 1737
Aaron Finch - 1674
Ravi Ashwin - 1588
Hashim Amla - 1524
Dean Elgar- 1484
Shaun Marsh- 1480
Shakib Al Hasan - 1439
Mitchell Marsh - 1425
Jofra Archer - 1409
Quinton de Kock - 1292
Ravi Jadeja - 1201
David Warner - 752
Steve Smith - 706
George Bailey - 631

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