Simon Harmer - The Best Cricketer of the Week

What with no completed Test matches this week, there is a severe paucity of cricket to write about this week. In fact only five of our Cricketers played. Despite this, it does not detract from two outstanding performances in domestic cricket for two outstanding spinners. Between them Simon Harmer and Jeetan Patel got thirteen wickets. This week's cricketer of the week, Simon Harmer, bagged the lion's share with 8 for the Warriors against the Knights with Patel chipping in a fivefer in his first innings for Wellington against Central Districts. Both of these domestic stalwarts have coupled their wicket taking impetus with rock bottom economies, with Patel's figures of 19-12-13-0 being the most eye-catching. The spin twins are having fans of the County Championship salivating with the hope they will continue this fine form in the coming months. 

Another 330 points for Rashid Khan further extends his dominance in the overall table despite his team's poor form in the World Cup Qualifiers. He is also the first player to break the 2000 point barrier in the overall point league, with Simon Harmer 52 points away from that accolade. In what has been a very wicket heavy week for the top scorers in the weekly league, the Afghanistan spinner bagged 8 in two games - meaning that the top three for the week shared 21 wickets between them in their three different tournaments. Whilst he will be at a personal low, Rashid can cling on to a great stat. The spinner has by far the highest wicket tally for any player after 43 ODIS at 99 - with 12 more than second place Mitchell Starc.

Ending the big hitters section, we can now look at two Cricketers who played but maybe did not contribute as much as they'd have liked. Shakib Al Hassan played in the final of the Nidahas Trophy and, with a great sense of deja vu, did exactly the same as he did the previous week - scored 7 runs and got one wicket. This gave him his second consecutive score of 27. Despite the relatively small total posted, due to the lack of other cricket going on this week, he has still moved up the table two places to sit in sixteenth place. On top of this today is his birthday - a welcome present for the 31 year old. 

But one player who will be disappointed is JP Duminy - who joins the small list of players who have played a game but scored zero points. Going against Cricket South Africa, Duminy decided to join his Islamabad teammates in Pakistan and - despite the potential risk - did not bat nor bowl. Up until this point Duminy was the only player to have registered points in every game week - an impressive spell brought to an end. 

Week

Simon Harmer - 355
Jeetan Patel - 340
Rashid Khan - 280
Shakib Al Hasan - 27
Hashim Amla - dnp 
Jofra Archer - dnp 
Ravi Ashwin - dnp
George Bailey - dnp 
Jos Buttler - dnp 
Quinton de Kock- dnp 
AB De Villiers - dnp 
JP Duminy - dnp 
Dean Elgar - dnp 
Aaron Finch - dnp 
Ravi Jadeja- dnp 
Virat Kohli - dnp 
Nathan Lyon - dnp 
Mitchell Marsh - dnp 
Shaun Marsh - dnp 
Sunil Narine - dnp 
Joe Root - dnp 
Steve Smith - dnp 
David Warner - dnp 
Kane Williamson - dnp 

Overall

Rashid Khan - 2038
Simon Harmer - 1948
JP Duminy - 1659
Sunil Narine- 1450
Joe Root - 1308
Mitchell Marsh - 1245
Virat Kohli- 1231
Nathan Lyon - 1225
Jos Buttler - 1026
Aaron Finch - 999
Kane Williamson -906
Jeetan Patel - 884
Ravi Ashwin - 878
AB De Villiers- 778
Quinton de Kock - 670
Shakib Al Hasan - 662
David Warner - 650
Steve Smith - 633
Hashim Amla - 598
George Bailey - 560
Dean Elgar- 557
Jofra Archer - 550
Shaun Marsh- 506
Ravi Jadeja - 412

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

Simon Harmer - The Best Cricketer of the Week

I am always pleasantly surprised at how fair the points system is. The fact we have only had one player on the top of our weekly league twice (Shakib Al Hasan) is testament to how it highlights the truly outstanding performers of the week. We have also seen it throw up some rather unusual players for credit. This week is one of those weeks. Simon Harmer delivered almost the perfect game for the Warriors against the Dolphins in the Sunfoil Series this week. He grabbed points in every category with the exception of bonus points for runs and for strike rate. His 12 wickets in one game has seen him beat Sunil Narine's highest points score for one week and has also seen him go from a relatively creditable 9th position to third place overall - over such high flyers as Rashid Khan and the aforementioned Sunil Narine. 

When it comes to T20 season few players utilise their time better than Narine. The PSL is the first big tournament of 2018 and the spinner has swung into T20 form without pause. Building up on his form for Trinidad and Tobago, he has now joined up with Lahore Qalanders and registered a top ten score in his first two games despite the fact that his team have lost their two opening games. Thus far in the year, Narine has picked up the bulk of his points with the ball but now he is in T20 mode his batting has adjusted accordingly - most notably in his ten ball 28 that earned him 68 points alone. If he matches his bowling form for T&T with that explosive batting he could push himself into the top three overall after passing the 1000 point score this week. 

Even with his good start to the year, Kane Williamson is in a world of bother with the bat. He started the year with two weeks in second position lagging behind, first, Jos Buttler and, then, JP Duminy. Since then his poor form has seen him drop week by week. He has now registered single figure scores in 7 of his last 8 games and has an average for February of 17.7. This has seen him struggle to regain his position in the top ten of our overall league. Currently sitting 12th, he is 60 points off Aaron Finch in tenth. With a series of ODI matches against England on the table he will be hoping to turn his form round or face a further embarrassing slip down the league. 

Before this week Nathan Lyon and Steve Smith did not have a lot to crow about. Lyon had suffered a bit of a pasting playing for the Prime Minister's XI against England whilst Smith was second bottom in the table ahead of only Jeetan Patel. This week they have played a warm up game against South Africa A and - without setting the world alight - they have performed comfortably. Lyon's economy was flawless and, whilst he only got one wicket, he seemed to limit the team well - with the exception of one dubious over. Smith's scores were also not overly gargantuan, scoring 23 and 25, however his strike rate in the second innings was 192.3 and his mystery spin brought the house down around South Africa A in their second innings. Lyon's 173 points sees his slide out of the top ten arrested and he now sits in eight place whilst his skipper leap frogs a number of players to move him well away from the foot of the table and alongside his compatriot David Warner. 

He is tenacious - we will give him that. Facing mounting criticism regarding his captaincy, dropped from the one Day team and usurped at the top of the overall table, JP Duminy had his second best week of 2018 and sits second behind Harmer in this week's top point scorers. His back to back half centuries sees him up one place on our overall league - 41 points behind Kohli. Duminy is now expected to return to domestic cricket where he thrived whereas Kohli seems to have nothing on this week. Dare he dream?

Week

Simon Harmer - 504
JP Duminy - 232
Steve Smith- 188
Jos Buttler - 161
Rashid Khan - 178
Nathan Lyon - 173
Mitchell Marsh - 167
Jofra Archer - 145
Sunil Narine - 134
Joe Root - 111
Ravi Jadeja - 96
Shaun Marsh - 74 
Quinton de Kock- 63
David Warner - 55
Virat Kohli - 47
Kane Williamson - 45
Dean Elgar- 27
Aaron Finch - 18
George Bailey - 10
Shakib Al Hasan - dnp 
Hashim Amla - dnp
Ravi Ashwin - dnp
AB De Villiers- dnp 
Jeetan Patel - dnp 

Overall

Virat Kohli- 1231
JP Duminy - 1190
Simon Harmer - 1169
Rashid Khan - 1166
Sunil Narine- 1036
Mitchell Marsh - 939
Jos Buttler - 851
Nathan Lyon - 834
Ravi Ashwin - 810
Aaron Finch - 735
Joe Root - 733
Kane Williamson - 675
Shakib Al Hasan - 608
Jofra Archer - 550
Hashim Amla - 467
Steve Smith - 463
David Warner - 435
AB De Villiers- 423
Quinton de Kock - 408
Shaun Marsh- 408
Ravi Jadeja - 397
George Bailey - 395
Dean Elgar- 394
Jeetan Patel - 108

Virat Kohli - The Best Cricketer of the Week

On a week dominated by fine bowling performances, the man who ends up as the best cricketer is a batsman - namely Virat Kohli. Whilst he has never been out of form, January was not the most electric month for the super star of world cricket - he set this right in a week which sees his February average rise to 98.25 compared to his 47.7 in January. His 281 runs this week also puts him in the top five run scorers of all time for India and puts him a mere 8 points behind our overall leader, JP Duminy. With Duminy on a run of poor scores and Kohli looking unbeatable, we could see a new overall leader next week. 

Ravi Ashwin has not been representing India in the white ball contests against South Africa but makes up a trio of three bowlers who have been excelling in their domestic competitions. 10 wickets plus a top score of 41 runs sees the Indian spinner, who had not played since the 13th January, accrue 310 points in a week and bring him back into the top ten players overall. For the other high performing bowlers, Sunil Narine and Simon Harmer, it has not been all about wickets. The West Indian spinner picked up six wickets this week but has also claimed 70 extra points through some more hugely economical bowling with all of his figures falling under 3. Simon Harmer's performances for the Warriors have been equally as frugal with his highest economy being 2.47. 

Perhaps the oddest high-scoring bowler this week has been Ravi Jadeja. Playing his first games of 2018, the Saurashta man has not taken a single wicket in four games - but picked up a hat load of points for frugal bowling as well as bagging a very unlikely 113* against Jharkand. Whilst he has managed to get 301 points this week, it will be a worry to him that he has gone 61.4 overs since his last wicket in List A cricket. It is Jadeja that I have selected this week for my unflattering comparison with David Warner. Luckless Warner got just 6 runs with the bat as part of his score of 56 this week. Jadeja is now three places above him despite playing five fewer games than the Australian and starting the week on 0. Warner is still the second lowest ranked player. 

Rashid Khan wraps up, what has been, a good week for spinners. Throughout the BBL he had been battling for superiority with Jofra Archer - however his 270 points picked up whilst playing for Afghanistan has seen him leave his English (?) compatriot in the dust. His nine wickets this week see him placed just inside the overall top ten. With Archer now six places below him, the Nangarhar born superstar is now vying for superiority with the likes of more experienced players like Nathan Lyon or Simon Harmer. 

When we focus on outstanding batting and bowling, we need to reserve space for those who have not done so well. This has not been a good week for Quinton de Kock, whose performances have seen him dropped from the South Africa ODI side. More galling for him is the fact that his replacement, Henrich Klassen, was deemed man of the match yesterday. This could see a spell out of the spotlight for De Kock who may see himself in the bottom third of our overall table for a little while.