Photo Credit: Professional Cricketers’ Association
- Oval Invincibles & Surrey star Sam Curran tops men’s standings with 141.95 MVP points
- Deepti Sharma heads women’s table after amassing 137.12 MVP points with London Spirit
- The PCA’s Most Valuable Player Rankings were developed in association with CricViz
The voting for August’s PCA Players of the Month is now open.
It’s time to select who you think should receive the trophies, with the top four men’s and women’s domestic players chosen using the PCA’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) Rankings.
Having already been named The Hundred Men’s and Women’s PCA MVP Players of the Year, Sam Curran and Annabel Sutherland could add another award to their individual collection.
Surrey and Oval Invincibles all-rounder Curran enjoyed a fantastic month and topped the men’s points table. Birmingham Phoenix opener Ben Duckett finished second, with Warwickshire teammates Ed Barnard and Alex Davies is third and fourth respectively.
While playing a vital role in leading London Spirit to their maiden Hundred title, Deepti Sharma accumulated more points than anyone else in the women’s game during August. Oval Invincibles Marizanne Kapp was just behind, with Sutherland in third and Hayley Matthews the final nominee.
The PCA’s Most Valuable Player Rankings picks out the game’s top performers across every single fixture. This then forms the rankings for each competition, as well as an overall table which is how the top four is selected. The MVP takes into account batting, bowling and fielding contributions as well as match defining contributions using a unique algorithm developed with CricViz.
The PCA Player of the Month is decided by a 50:50 split between the MVP and the public vote on thepca.co.uk – with the poll closing at 10pm on Wednesday 4 September. With a short window to have your say, vote now to pick your winners for August.
Men’s Player of the Month
White-ball cricket once again dominated in August as The Hundred was played out alongside the Metro Bank One Day Cup. There were also a couple of rounds of the Vitality County Championship, with everything up to day three of the latest round counting towards the August award.
Sam Curran (Oval Invincibles & Surrey)
In total, left-arm all-rounder Curran scored 189 runs and took 16 wickets as he amassed 141.95 MVP points.
The 26-year-old secured three Match MVP awards during August, with his most impressive performance coming in the London derby at Lord’s, thanks to a blistering unbeaten innings of 51 off just 22 balls and incredible figures of 5-16 which included a hat-trick.
Ben Duckett (Birmingham Phoenix)
The Birmingham Phoenix opener scored 248 runs at a brilliant average of 82.67 in August, earning him 135.37 MVP points.
The 29-year-old recorded more batting MVP points than anyone else during the month and won two Match MVP awards. His standout innings came against Southern Brave, where he raced to 92 off 53 balls, with five maximums, in what ended up being the highest men’s individual score of this year’s Hundred.
Ed Barnard (Warwickshire)
Last year’s Metro Bank One Day Cup PCA MVP Player of the Year had another strong tournament and also produced more bowling points than anyone else during the month.
Across two formats, the Warwickshire all-rounder scored 314 runs in August at an average of 39.25 and took 20 wickets at just 17.65, claiming 127.64 MVP points. The 28-year-old’s best game was against Gloucestershire when he scored an unbeaten 152 off 134 balls and took 3-16 with the ball as Warwickshire won by six wickets in the Metro Bank One Day Cup.
Alex Davies (Southern Brave & Warwickshire)
Wicket-keeper batter Davies scored 333 runs at 30.27 in August, took nine dismissals and accumulated 125.21 MVP points.
The 30-year-old is the leading run-scorer in Vitality County Championship Division One and recorded his fourth century of the season with 131 against Somerset. He also struck a brisk 35 during The Hundred final at Lord’s.
Women’s Player of the Month
To assist your decision on who to vote for in the women’s category, below is a quick glance at the performances from the four nominees in August as The Hundred came to a conclusion alongside the return of the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy.
Deepti Sharma (London Spirit)
The Indian all-rounder was outstanding with bat and ball during The Hundred, scoring 212 runs alongside taking eight wickets to register 137.12 MVP points.
No-one recorded more batting points than her and she won a Match MVP award against Trent Rockets for an unbeaten 30 off 23 balls and figures of 2-25. She also secured London Spirit’s first Hundred title by smiting a six to win with two balls spare.
Marizanne Kapp (Oval Invincibles)
The South-African scored 174 runs at an average of 58.00 during the month as well as taking nine wickets at 12.56 as she recorded 130.66 MVP points.
The 34-year-old all-rounder won two Match MVP awards, the first for her unbeaten innings of 26 off 24 and figures of 3-8 against Trent Rockets. The second saw her smash a brilliant 47 off 32 and take 4-11 with the ball against London Spirit, securing an impressive 54 MVP points.
Annabel Sutherland (Northern Superchargers)
The Hundred Women’s Player of the Year scored 186 runs at 46.75 and took six wickets in August, obtaining 124.58 MVP points.
The 22-year-old Australian scored the second most amount of batting points in the month and won a Match MVP award against Oval Invincibles for an unbeaten 63 off 40 balls and fantastic figures of 4-11 with the ball, which amounted to 55 MVP points.
Hayley Matthews (Welsh Fire)
The West-Indian all-rounder scored 191 runs during the month and took 10 wickets at 15.10, securing 122.48 MVP points.
The 26-year-old won two Match MVP awards, earning 38 points for her unbeaten innings of 78 off 46 balls against London Spirit and 42 MVP points for 35* off 26 balls and recording 4-14 against Southern Brave.
Find out more about the PCA MVP Rankings and view the men’s and women’s tables.
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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.
