Photo Credit: Professional Cricketers’ Association
Opener tops IT20 MVP Rankings to take home trophy.
Sophia Dunkley has won the Vitality IT20 Women’s Player of the Summer award after finishing top of the PCA’s Most Valuable Player Rankings.
The South East Stars and Southern Brave batter is a deserving winner of the award finishing as England’s leading run scorer in IT20s this summer.
England enjoyed a 3-0 series white-wash of South Africa, this was then followed up with a 2-1 series win over India as Dunkley played a vital part in her new role at the top of the order.
The Vitality IT20 Women’s Player of the Summer is selected by the PCA MVP Rankings. The formula enables players to score or lose MVP points on every ball based on their expected performance for that ball in comparison to CricViz’s extensive historical database of IT20 cricket.
The 24-year-old has played a pivotal role in England’s summer, leading the way up top scoring 197 runs at an average of 39.4 and an impressive strike-rate of 143 with two half centuries.
Dunkley won an incredible three Match MVPs out of the six games this summer. In the opening game against South Africa she smashed 59 off 39 balls including five fours and three sixes.
In the first game against India she once again showed her dominance at the top of the order scoring 61 not out off 44 balls giving her 25 points on the MVP table and helping England to win the game.
In the final game of the IT20 summer Dunkley also took the Match MVP award for 49 off 44 balls to help beat India by seven wickets.
On winning the award Dunkley said: “I think this series has been great, I’m really proud of the team and it’s been amazing seeing as we’re missing some key players.
“A few of us have had to step up and we’re quite a young team but the results speak for themselves because we’ve done really well.
“Going about the first few overs I go really hard and hopefully the more I get used to it the better I’ll get. It’s great to work with Danni (Wyatt) as she has so much experience in the role.
“It’s really exciting having young players coming through and we have a good chance of winning the T20 World Cup next year.”
In second place on the Rankings is Thunder and Manchester Originals’ all-rounder Sophie Ecclestone who had a great summer for England.
The 2018 and 2019 PCA Women’s Player of the Year winner scored 40 runs without being dismissed off just 18 balls and took nine wickets with a brilliant average of 16.5 as well as three catches.
The 23-year-old won a Match MVP in the third IT20 against South Africa scoring 33 not out off just 12 balls including four fours and two sixes as well as bowling figures of 2-24 and taking a catch which earned her 16 MVP points.
Ecclestone made a brilliant contribution with the ball in the final IT20 against India with figures of 3-25 off her fours overs as well as taking an impressive diving catch at long-off.
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.
