JP Duminy - The Best Cricketer of the Week

I feel a slight sense of anti climax after last week's record high of 2943 points to only be awarding 477 this week, however a combination of rain in England, the conclusion of the two series between Sri Lanka and South Africa and West Indies and Bangladesh as well as the fact this week falls between Tests in the England-India series means that cricket was more scarce this week. The beneficiary of this is Cricketer of the Week JP Duminy whose two wickets and 38 runs sees him top of the tree. His return to form in the last few weeks has, not only seen him back in the mix with regards to point scoring, but also made T20 captain for South Africa. This seems a strange move when, as I touched on last week, his talents lay more in the One Day arena - however his tally of 118 points, added to his 337 from last week, has seen him shoot up the overall table. This week he has overtaken Ravi Ashwin to take 12th place - if he can overcome his 2018 T20 hoodoo - we could see the South African force his way into the top ten in the coming weeks. 

I am surprised to see Kane Williamson so far down the weekly table. Unlike his other T20 Blast compatriots, Williamson's Yorkshire team has dodged the rain this week and managed to complete two games. Despite this successful moisture dodging, Williamson scored just 11 runs against Nottinghamshire and 1 in the Roses game; which was not the greatest birthday present for the 28 year old. In his three weeks at Yorkshire it has been a real case of feast or famine for the New Zealand captain. In his ten innings across the T20 Blast and the County Championship he has registered four innings over 35 but 6 innings under 11. This variable form is also seen in his weekly points tallies with him scoring 90 in his first week, 298 in his second and 22 this week. Overall his average is a fairly underwhelming 23.6 however if he shows what he is capable of in his stellar four innings (213 runs at 53.25) rather than his six rubbish ones (23 at 4.6) he could challenge those around him on the overall table. At the beginning of the IPL he, Joe Root and Virat Kohli were all at the bottom of the top ten together, whilst the other two Test captains have drawn away from him, Williamson is currently still in ninth place and has Jofra Archer in tenth and JP Duminy in twelfth chasing him closely for his berth. 

We, as cricket fans, can sometimes be quite sadistic to those that abuse the game - however we can forgive when we feel like it. For every Salman Butt and Shahid Afridi there is a Michael Atherton or Faf du Plessis who has been welcomed back into the cricketing fraternity with open arms. We are yet to decide what to do with the Sandpaper Three - however David Warner, believed to be the chief architect of that fateful day in South Africa, is continuing his time in T20 purgatory whilst we decide what we want to do with him. After his time in Canada where he scored six single figure scores out of his eight matches for Winnipeg, he has now joined up with St Lucia in the CPL where he kick started his campaign with...a single figure score. To top this off he also dropped an absolute sitter of a catch. For those who say that franchise cricket is not much of a punishment for the three cast into the wilderness, all you need do is look at the form of Warner and think again. 

Week

JP Duminy - 118
Sunil Narine - 74
Quinton de Kock - 73
Hashim Amla- 70
Jeetan Patel- 66
Simon Harmer - 45
Kane Williamson - 22
David Warner - 9 
Shakib Al Hasan - dnp 
Jofra Archer- dnp 
Ravi Ashwin- dnp 
George Bailey - dnp 
Jos Buttler - dnp 
AB De Villiers- dnp 
Dean Elgar- dnp 
Ravi Jadeja - dnp 
Aaron Finch - dnp 
Rashid Khan - dnp 
Virat Kohli - dnp 
Nathan Lyon - dnp 
Mitchell Marsh - dnp 
Shaun Marsh- dnp 
Steve Smith- dnp 
Joe Root - dnp 

Overall

Simon Harmer - 4374
Jeetan Patel - 4051
Rashid Khan - 3619
Jos Buttler - 3414
Aaron Finch - 3057
Sunil Narine- 3048
Virat Kohli- 3009
Joe Root - 2995
Kane Williamson -2821
Jofra Archer - 2735
Shakib Al Hasan - 2582
JP Duminy - 2281
Ravi Ashwin - 2183
AB De Villiers- 2010
Hashim Amla - 1969
Quinton de Kock - 1866
Nathan Lyon - 1833
Dean Elgar- 1686
Shaun Marsh- 1498
Mitchell Marsh - 1425
Ravi Jadeja - 1226
David Warner - 1020
Steve Smith - 965
George Bailey - 631

Joe Root - The Best Cricketer of the Week

Using a single week of this Summer as a springboard for future success has proved something of a difficult thing for anyone. Last week I said that Virat Kohli's dominance of Joe Root was something of an embarrassment and that the Indian captain's 265 could be a sign of big things to come. Fast forward seven days and it is Joe Root who sits top of the tree after executing a 268 point swing that saw the England Test captain overtake both his Indian counterpart and Aaron Finch and move into sixth place. It has been a disappointing year for Root and one week does not redress that but if Adil Rashid's career can turn on one ball then the infinitely more talented Root can change his year in one week. Something I used to talk about fairly regularly at the beginning of these posts was the fact that these points could prove a barometer for who really was the best young batting captain out of Root, Kohli, Williamson and Smith. With Smith having been knocked out of the equation it is interesting that, with over half the year gone and despite the relatively poor form he has been in, it is Root who sits above his two rivals . With the hoodoo of not being able to convert fifties into centuries seemingly broken and a decent T20 Blast game to boost his confidence, this Summer could be the chance for him to underline that supremacy in permanent marker. 

The long awaited return of Kane Williamson has been something of an anti-climax. Having been absent from cricket since the IPL final six weeks ago, his return to Yorkshire has been anticipated by fans of the White Rose, New Zealanders and Williamson alike. His yield of just six points from the truncated T20 Blast game against Lancashire will not have been the display that anyone desired but the Kiwi's visits to God's country are often fruitful and he will be hopeful of keeping up with the pace in the top ten whilst aiming to boost his side up the Division One Table. For one four-day game he will join up with Cricketer of the Week Joe Root in what is a tantalising advert for the English county game. 

Following two weeks of impeccable form that saw him top the Weekly tables for a fortnight, Aaron Finch was finally beaten.....by rain. In the abandoned game against Kent, the Surrey batsman posted 83 off 38 balls - enough to give him at least 143 points, keep his lead on Joe Root and continue a very strong month for the Victorian but, as the rain washed out the Spitfire ground so too did it wash away Finch's chance of continued domination. This does not diminish Finch's achievements. If you include the abandoned 83 from Thursday, Finch has scored 662 runs at a strike rate of 95 in his nine matches since the end of the IPL. With games against Somerset, Glamorgan and Middlesex forthcoming Finch will be itching to get bat in hand again to ensure his hot streak continues. 

Finch was the first back to back winner of the best Cricketer of the Week award since Shakib Al Hasan did it in January - but since then the Bangladesh captain has been rather subdued ...until this week. Despite West Indies humiliating crushing of his national side, the captain can feel very proud of his contributions in the second Test with figures of 6/33 in the second innings and a combined total of 86 runs. The 381 points accrued by the Magura born man are his highest achieved in 2018. It also sees him the biggest mover of the week on the overall table - rising to eleventh from fourteenth. 

Would there be any more fitting an end to Smith and Warner's foray into Canadian cricket than the two exiled Australians having gained no further ground on each other and scoring the exact same points? Last week I said that Warner would be the narrow winner due to the fact that his Winnipeg Hawks team were playing in the final but Warner had the most spectacular zero point game of 2018 to mean that both he and Smith gain 259 points in the competition. This means there is still 46 points between them and that their tournament has comprised of drawing marginally away from George Bailey and marginally towards Ravi Jadeja. 

Week

Joe Root - 424 
Shakib Al Hasan - 381
Jofra Archer - 381
Virat Kohli- 156
Jos Buttler - 80
Jeetan Patel - 60
Simon Harmer - 48
Ravi Ashwin - 30
Kane Williamson - 6
David Warner - 0 
Hashim Amla- dnp 
George Bailey - dnp 
Quinton de Kock- dnp 
AB De Villiers- dnp 
JP Duminy- dnp 
Dean Elgar - dnp 
Aaron Finch- dnp 
Ravi Jadej - dnp 
Rashid Khan - dnp 
Nathan Lyon - dnp 
Mitchell Marsh- dnp 
Shaun Marsh - dnp 
Sunil Narine - dnp 
Steve Smith - dnp 


Overall

Simon Harmer - 4298
Jeetan Patel - 3582
Rashid Khan - 3463
Jos Buttler - 3301
Sunil Narine- 2974
Joe Root - 2691
Aaron Finch - 2689
Virat Kohli- 2651
Kane Williamson -2411
Jofra Archer - 2214
Shakib Al Hasan - 2054
AB De Villiers- 2010
Nathan Lyon - 1833
Ravi Ashwin - 1820
JP Duminy - 1737
Hashim Amla - 1667
Dean Elgar- 1594
Shaun Marsh- 1498
Mitchell Marsh - 1425
Quinton de Kock - 1387
Ravi Jadeja - 1201
David Warner - 1011
Steve Smith - 965
George Bailey - 631

Aaron Finch - The Best Cricketer of the Week...again

It must be difficult for a natural record breaker such as Aaron Finch to be the second person to do something or the seventh best at something but this week he is the second player after Shakib Al Hasan back in January to score back to Cricketer of the Week accolades largely due to the seventh highest T20 Blast score in the history of the competition. His 131 for Surrey put the icing on the cake of what was already a week where he had ended the tri-series with 47 against Pakistan before joining up with Surrey and getting 58 in his first match against Essex. It really has been an excellent Summer for the Victorian with his average since the first of June at a heady 70.7. His strike rate is almost as impressive as his high number of runs. This week alone his three totals came at strike rates of 174, 175 and 166. He continues to rise up the overall table and has this week leapfrogged the long dormant Kane Williamson to claim sixth place. 

Using these head to head battles has added a further element of competition to this overall contest - however the comparison between Joe Root and Virat Kohli has been as one side as the Titanic in the last week. Root's Summer continues to be drab and dreary - this week his 22 points is his lowest ever score from a week where he has been active. This has been coupled with his omission from the England squad for the final T20 match. Compare this to the Indian captain who used this week as a springboard to turn his fortunes around with 265 points and a second place finish in the weekly table. He has coupled 122 runs with decent strike rates and fielding contributions to put together his most effective week in England in recent memory. From an Indian perspective there will be a huge sense of anticipation that the two players form will remain the same as the Test series approaches. Overall Kohli has overtaken both Williamson and Root and put himself into seventh place and now has a 228 point lead over his English opponent. 

The Summer Test series are very much starting to swing into play - which sees a number of our list returning to action after periods away from point scoring however four of these players have been rather humiliated on their return to the biggest stage. Our three South African candidates Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock and Dean Elgar were rather humbled by Sri Lanka in a match that finished somewhat prematurely this morning. Whilst Amla's weekly score looks the most decent of the trio, a majority of his runs came courtesy of a score of 78 versus a Sri Lanka Board XI and just 15 from the Test. Quinton De Kock's poor run of form that dates back to the IPL continues as his return from nine absent weeks yielded a mere 15 runs across four innings. Not much better was Shakib Al Hasan's showing in Bangladesh's loss to the West Indies. He contributed 12 runs and 2 wickets as his team were rolled over in an innings defeat. Both of these teams and their players will hope for better in their off season tours. 

The tournament is over for two of the three players who have been plying their trade in Canada over the last few weeks. Sunil Narine's Montreal Tigers and Steve Smith's Toronto Nationals have been eliminated with only David Warner's Winnipeg Hawks facing the prospect of a further two games if they can reach the final in today's last qualifier. Inarguably it is the West Indian spinner who has impressed the most of the trio. Despite his team's early exit the player has accrued 357 points over the tournament. Despite David Warner's tepid start, a good week this week has seen both he and Smith get 259 to this point in the competition - however Warner will swell this total due to his continued participation. It will be Warner who feels most pleased out of the two disgraced Australians as he breaks the 1000 point mark for the year and puts himself in contention to overtake Ravi Jadeja when he joins up with the St Lucia Stars. 

Naturally we need to mention Simon Harmer, Jeetan Patel and Rashid Khan at least once in these posts. As predicted Harmer and Patel are struggling in the T20 Blast due to both these players preferring the longer form of the game. What is perhaps more of a surprise is Rashid Khan, something of a T20 Golgotha, taking to the tournament like a duck to hoisin sauce. It is something of a surprise to me that a man who is so destructive in the Big Bash League and the IPL would struggle in the more pedestrian standards of the T20 Blast. This week he got a measly three wickets from his three games. Over and above this his economy rates have been shockingly high for a man who, on the international stage, is usually the king of the Maiden. Sussex will not mind whilst they are near the top of the table but they will want their superstar acquisition to start playing in a more super way if they have a chance of winning the tournament. 

Week

Aaron Finch - 386
Virat Kohli - 265
Ravi Ashwin - 202
David Warner - 187
Jos Buttler - 181
Sunil Narine- 156 
Steve Smith- 153
Hashim Amla - 143
Jofra Archer - 129
Dean Elgar- 110
Simon Harmer - 105
Shakib Al Hassan - 102
Quinton De Kock- 95
Rashid Khan - 71
Jeetan Patel - 47
Joe Root - 22
George Bailey - dnp 
AB De Villiers- dnp 
JP Duminy- dnp 
Ravi Jadeja- dnp 
Nathan Lyon - dnp 
Mitchell Marsh- dnp 
Shaun Marsh - dnp 
Kane Williamson - dnp 

Overall

Simon Harmer - 4250
Jeetan Patel - 3522
Rashid Khan - 3463
Jos Buttler - 3221
Sunil Narine- 2974
Aaron Finch - 2689
Virat Kohli- 2495
Kane Williamson -2405
Joe Root - 2267
AB De Villiers- 2010
Jofra Archer - 1833
Nathan Lyon - 1833
Ravi Ashwin - 1790
JP Duminy - 1737
Shakib Al Hasan - 1673
Hashim Amla - 1667
Dean Elgar- 1594
Shaun Marsh- 1498
Mitchell Marsh - 1425
Quinton de Kock - 1387
Ravi Jadeja - 1201
David Warner - 1011
Steve Smith - 965
George Bailey - 631

Aaron Finch - The Best Cricketer Of The Week

It is always a pleasure to have a different name as Cricketer of the Week and, whilst it is not a debut appearance, Aaron Finch's top spot is a welcome break from the dominance of Messrs Harmer, Khan and Patel. It will come as a surprise to nobody that Finch's record-breaking week sees him top the charts with an extraordinary 433 points. Over  and above his world beating 172 against Zimbabwe he also got 68* against the sterner opposition of Pakistan so he was always a strong favourite . Once you add this to sparkling strike rates in both these performances it all adds up to a week of dominance from the Aussie batsman. It has been a year of three thirds for the Victorian. He started the year with a series of dominant performances in the Sheffield Shield for Victoria before going AWOL for the first three quarters of the IPL. This could be the beginning of a spell of world class form for the batsman that could see him become a real force in time for the World Cup next year. His performance this week sees him rocket up the overall table and seems him take his place back in the top ten again. He has now overleaped such cricketing luminaries as AB De Villiers, Virat Kohli and Joe Root to seal his position in seventh place. 

Finch is not the only player to rise higher than a Donald Trump blimp in the overall table this week; Jofra Archer has taken his opportunity to build up form with the Sussex 2nd XI with two games in a day against Kent 2nd XI. This would have boosted his match fitness and led to the impressive 3/24 plus 24 runs in his first T20 Blast game against Essex. Overall the young English player has got eight wickets this week. We are used to praising Simon Harmer and Jeetan Patel for their domestic form but as we move into a period of short form domestic cricket, I fully expect Archer to draw the plaudits going forward.  The lower-middle half of the table is so tightly packed that Archer's weekly score of 295 has seen him rise 6 places to 13th. With the three players in front of him (JP Duminy, Nathan Lyon and JP Duminy) all currently inactive, a busy spell in the T20 Blast could see Archer force his way to his highest position all year. 

It has been a disappointing week for our three Cricketing mercenaries who have taken refuge in Canada. Whilst Sunil Narine's 201 seems a decent score, a majority of points are picked up from economy and strike rate points with the West Indian bagging just two wickets and 71 runs from his three games this week. It still seems a mystery to me how a player that performs so explosively in the IPL fails to replicate this form in other T20 competitions around the world. When it comes to the other two more high profile players, it seems to be a battle between the two Australian outcasts who can show the most penance for their actions through performing as badly as humanly possible. This week it was David Warner who seemed to do better than his former captain, claiming 72 points - but with only 12 of these coming from the bat his returns seem far from emphatic. It seems a suitable point to mention that he was having a far from explosive year even before this ban. On the week before Sandpaper gate, the batsman was in a lowly 17th place. Steve Smith followed up his impressive 61 against Vancouver with scores of 10 and 3 to claim just 13 points overall for the week. Warner has just about scored enough to overtake Smith in the overall table but to say that this lacklustre tournament is producing lacklustre performances is something of an understatement. 

I am not usually one to dwell on disappointment, I usually leave that to my girlfriend, however the tussle between the two batting captains, Root and Kohli, has turned into more of a bottle than a battle. After Kohli scored just 9 against Ireland and 20 in the first game against England, Root saw his counterparts ineptitude and matched it with a duck in the same game. Not many would have expected the two players to finish the week lower placed than they started but due to their damp squibs and Finch's pyrotechnics both players dropped a place in the overall league. It goes without saying that Kohli would have been the happier of the two as he draws himself to within 15 points of overtaking Root just before the second T20 this evening. 

Week

Aaron Finch - 433

Jofra Archer- 295

Sunil Narine - 201

Jos Buttler - 119 

Shakib Al Hasan - 132

Jeetan Patel - 100

David Warner - 72

Virat Kohli- 59

Rashid Khan - 50 

Simon Harmer - 23

Steve Smith - 13

Joe Root - 0

Ravi Ashwin - dnp 

Hashim Amla- dnp 

George Bailey - dnp 

Quinton De Kock- dnp 

AB De Villiers- dnp 

JP Duminy - dnp 

Dean Elgar - dnp 

Ravi Jadeja - dnp 

Nathan Lyon - dnp 

Mitchell Marsh - dnp 

Shaun Marsh - dnp 

Kane Williamson - dnp 

Overall

Simon Harmer - 4145

Jeetan Patel - 3475
Rashid Khan - 3392

Jos Buttler - 3040

Sunil Narine- 2818

Kane Williamson -2405

Aaron Finch - 2303

Joe Root - 2245

Virat Kohli- 2230

AB De Villiers- 2010

Nathan Lyon - 1833

JP Duminy - 1737

Jofra Archer - 1704

Ravi Ashwin - 1588

Shakib Al Hasan - 1571

Hashim Amla - 1524

Shaun Marsh- 1498

Dean Elgar- 1484

Mitchell Marsh - 1425

Quinton de Kock - 1292

Ravi Jadeja - 1201

David Warner - 824

Steve Smith - 799

George Bailey - 631

Simon Harmer - The Best Cricketer of the Week

The last time someone put up as epic a fight centred on maidens as Simon Harmer has this week, it was during the Battle of Troy. Both of our County Championship brethren picked up a huge amount of points for their maidens scored but, Cricketer of the Week, Simon Harmer's 581 consisted of 32% maidens - a statistic usually only reserved for the House of Commons. It has been an effective week for both Harmer and Patel and these hard Summer months that squeeze in two County games in a week, whilst undoubtably tiring, do boost the total points scored for the bowlers participating in them. Simon Harmer now has a 780 run lead on his historic rival Rashid Khan and it is in those two very different players where you can see the difference in points picked up. Whilst Rashid Khan is eminently more well known and will have played more games over the course of 2018, it is the destructive nature of the bowler in long form cricket that allows one to regularly pick up massive hauls as the South African spinner has done this week. Whilst the title appears to be moving away from Essex, it may be that Harmer's personal lead is now insurmountable.

When I refer to Rashid Khan as Harmer's historical rival, it is because it is no longer he that most closely pushes the South African for Pole position but Jeetan Patel whose 496 points this week gives him a narrow advantage over the Afghanistani spinner. Two impressive performances, including a match winning effort in the Day/Night match against Durham, has seen the New Zealand bowler only spend a week in third spot, having overtaken Sunil Narine last week, before taking silver position this week. If you got points for captaincy he would have further pulled away from third position, thanks to a gutsy declaration that arguably won Warwickshire the game. With twenty wickets taken last year in the T20 Blast, his point scoring may still continue.

It was not only Patel who was shaking things up at the top of the table this week. The Jos Buttler Sumer of Batting Pyrotechnics rumbled on for another week and his score of 311 would have been enough for him to have ended top of the table on your average week, instead he will have to be content with pushing a dormant Sunil Narine down to fifth place and claiming fourth place as his own. Since the start of May the Englishman has scored 916 runs and picked up 1605 points, moving him from 12th to his current fourth spot. This has undoubtably been a very good summer for England's recalled and rejuvenated hero.

I enjoy pitting players against each other on the eve of big tournaments and watching them battle it out. Last time we did this was when we watched the threeway dog fight between De Villiers, Kohli and Williamson throughout the IPL - a battle emphatically won by the Hyderabad batsman. Kohli can join another battle as we approach the series between England and India. The Indian captain and his English counterpart sit in 8th and 7th place respectively and both are coming out of a poor patch of form. Kohli's injury comeback against Ireland this week saw him score exactly 0 points whilst Root will be disappointed with his Summer where he has yet to do anything Earth-shattering but has been consistent. The pair are separated by a mere 74 points so it is anyone's for the taking. Will the home captain prevail or will Kohli break his English voodoo and push himself up the table?

After thirteen weeks of ducks, Steve Smith returned to cricket last night in front of a handful of people in King City, Canada. His yield of 93 points was enough to see movement at the bottom of the table for the first time in months. The ex-Australian captain is now 47 points above fellow disgraced Aussie, David Warner - who plays tonight for Winnipeg. There are now 402 points between these two Aussies and next placed Ravi Jadeja. It remains to be seen if the parochial Canadian bowling might still salvage the year for the two antipodean cast offs - but my word it is strange to see the mighty so far fallen.

Week

Simon Harmer - 581
Jeetan Patel- 496
Jos Buttler - 311
Aaron Finch - 196
Steve Smith- 93
Joe Root - 56
Nathan Lyon - 11
Virat Kohli - 0
Shakib Al Hasan - dnp
Hashim Amla - dnp
Jofra Archer - dnp
Ravi Ashwin- dnp
George Bailey - dnp
Quinton De Kock- dnp
AB De Villiers- dnp
JP Duminy - dnp
Dean Elgar - dnp
Ravi Jadeja - dnp
Rashid Khan - dnp
Nathan Lyon - dnp
Mitchell Marsh - dnp
Sunil Narine- dnp
David Warner - dnp
Kane Williamson - dnp

Overall

Simon Harmer - 4122
Jeetan Patel - 3375
Rashid Khan - 3342
Jos Buttler - 2921
Sunil Narine- 2617
Kane Williamson -2405
Joe Root - 2245
Virat Kohli- 2171
AB De Villiers- 2010
Aaron Finch - 1870
Nathan Lyon - 1833
JP Duminy - 1737
Ravi Ashwin - 1588
Hashim Amla - 1524
Shaun Marsh- 1498
Dean Elgar- 1484
Shakib Al Hasan - 1439
Mitchell Marsh - 1425
Jofra Archer - 1409
Quinton de Kock - 1292
Ravi Jadeja - 1201
Steve Smith - 799
David Warner - 752
George Bailey - 631