Photo Credit: Professional Cricketers’ Association
Nat Sciver-Brunt tops the PCA MVP Rankings to earn trophy.
For the second successive season, Nat Sciver-Brunt has won the Metro Bank ODI Women’s Player of the Summer after a string of scintillating performances.
Despite only playing in six of the nine One Day Internationals this season, Sciver-Brunt topped the PCA Most Valuable Player Rankings to win the award after match-winning performances against Pakistan and New Zealand.
The 32-year-old secured 93.20 MVP points thanks to a blistering 233 runs in four innings where she was only dismissed once. With an impressive strike-rate of 94.3, Sciver-Brunt also took three wickets, five catches and picked up two Match MVPs for her displays earlier in the summer.
In the third Metro Bank ODI against Pakistan at Chelmsford, the no.1 batter in the world according to the ICC Rankings, hit an unbeaten 124 off just 117 balls and took two wickets for 11 runs to secure a huge 46.45 MVP points and a series victory.
Her final ODI of the summer was also a highlight on 3 July as she hit 76 not out, bowled eight economical overs for just 31 and took a pair of important catches as England beat the Kiwis by five wickets. With 27.79 MVP points, she had a sizeable lead going into the Ireland ODI series for which she, and many regulars were rested.
Realistically, only Kate Cross and Tammy Beaumont could put pressure on Sciver-Brunt and deny her back-to-back Metro Bank ODI Women’s Player of the Summer awards and they did everything they could with some superb displays across the Irish Sea.
Winning the series against Ireland 2-1, it means they have now incredibly won seven ODI series in a row, showing remarkable consistency and a plethora of match-winning performances.
Opener Beaumont who was the 2023 cinch PCA Women’s Player of the Year also impressed with a phenomenal 150 not out off 139 balls in the second Ireland game, ending the summer with 360 runs at an average of 60 and a strike-rate of 99.7. Beaumont finished second with 83.42 MVP points.
Cross was leading the side in Heather Knight’s absence and with five debutants she took career best figures of 6-30 before hitting an unbeaten 38 off 36 balls to win the first ODI and ultimately propelled her to finish third in the summer standings. With 15 wickets and 55 runs across the summer, the Thunder all-rounder finished with 69.64 MVP points.
The Metro Bank ODI Women’s Player of the Summer was selected by the PCA Most Valuable Player Rankings. The formula takes into account expected performance on every ball according to CricViz’s extensive database. The algorithm also considers the historic performances of the venue each fixture is being played at, therefore giving a more accurate reflection of the top performers in the game than traditional batting and bowling averages do.
With just two IT20s to conclude the summer, Sciver-Brunt looks set to top the cross-format MVP leading into the Women’s T20 World Cup that starts for England on Saturday 5 October against Bangladesh.
View the final ODI and Overall Women’s International tables here.
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Name of Author: Professional Cricketers Association
The Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA), founded in 1967 by former England fast bowler Fred Rumsey as the Cricketers’ Association, represents past and present first-class cricketers in England and Wales. In the 1970s, the PCA established a standard employment contract and minimum wage for professional cricketers. It also helped create a pension scheme in 1995 and launched the magazine All Out Cricket and the ACE UK Educational Programme in 2002.
