Who Will be Twenty20 MVP?
It's twenty20 time again and if this year's competition comes anywhere near last year's we're in for a real treat. Graham Napier's 152 not out off 58 balls was the individual highlight midway through the group stages propelling him to the top of the T20 MVP rankings, a place he held on to despite a mad dash to the line from Tyrone Henderson, who lit up finals day with 59 from 21 balls against Durham in the semis. It was Henderson's big right hand which settled the final clinging onto a crisply hit straight drive from Justin Kemp in his bowling follow through to prevent any runs off the last ball.
Henderson finished second in the T20 MVP with 281 runs and 21 wickets, 17 points ahead of another all-rounder, Andrew Hall, who took 20 wickets and scored 233 runs from fewer matches. Hall had the highest points return from a single match when he scored 66 from 51 balls and then took 6-21 against his former team Worcestershire. He earned 40.63 points for this match, an interesting comparison with Napier's 40.48 points after his pyrotechnics against Sussex.
Kent's Pakistani all-rounders, Azhar Mahmood and Yasir Arafat, came fourth and fifth respectively while their county colleague Joe Denly came sixth. Denly, who demonstrated his potential in the 2007 T20, led the run-scoring in the 2008 competition with 451 runs at a strike rate of 1.20 including five fifties. Arafat was the leading wicket taker with 23 victims.
Rankings Bulletins
MVP Goes Amateur!
Fans of the PCA's groundbreaking Most Valuable Player system will be delighted to hear that MVP is being rolled out to all amateur cricketers! That's right, clubs and schools around the world will now be able to sign up for the professional MVP treatment, thanks to a brand new web portal in a joint initiative between the ECB and PCA.
No more arguing about who is the best player on your team - the MVP formula, designed by the pros for the pros, delivers a cumulative points system that rewards every run scored, wicket taken and catch held. All your scorecard information will be processed to determine who is grinding out the match winning performances...and who is full of hot air. Please visit at http://www.mycricketmvp.com/ for all the details.
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