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Andrew McDonald Wins the Friends Life t20 FTI MVP - 30/08/11Leicestershire Foxes' against the odds Friends Life t20 (FLt20) success was a victory for team spirit and togetherness but was also due in no small part to the performances of two key all-rounders. Despite a quiet Finals Day, which saw him make 21 runs from his two matches, Australian Andrew McDonald topped the FLt20 run-getters and the FLt20 FTI MVP with 585 runs at a strike rate of 128 runs per 100 balls. He scored 7 fifties with a best of 96 off 57 balls against Yorkshire at Leeds and a crucial 53 off 32 balls in the quarters against Kent. McDonald struck 53 fours and 9 sixes contributing 24% of the Foxes' total runs. With the ball he took 14 wickets at under 8 runs per over including 3-18 against Yorkshire and 3-26 against Northants. He only added 14 points to his tally at Edgbaston on Saturday but ended up 31 points clear of second placed Azhar Mahmood. McDonald is the second successive overseas player to win the FLt20 FTI MVP after Chaminda Vaas last year and the fifth all-rounder in five years after Vaas, Darren Stevens (8th this year), Graham Napier and Luke Wright. Josh Cobb was the Foxes other main man jumping to third in the FLt20 FTI MVP after an impressive Finals Day, which saw him rack up 35 points mainly thanks to his match-winning 4-22 in the final against Somerset. Cobb took 11 wickets across the campaign including a brace in his solitary over in the semi-final but it was with the bat that he often set the tone for the Foxes performance scoring quick runs at the top of the order. He scored 391 runs with two fifties and plenty of cameos that contributed to an impressive strike rate of 158 runs per 100 balls. He failed to contribute in the semi-final but made 18 off 10 balls in the final, which proved a useful warm up for his later heroics with the ball. Mahmood splits the Leicestershire duo having nearly put paid to their hopes in the competition when he struck 91 off 52 balls in the quarter-final at Grace Road. The Kent all-rounder scored 485 runs including 106 off 57 balls against Gloucestershire at Beckenham and three fifties. He scored 23.52% of Kent's runs hitting 50 fours and 12 sixes in the process. He found success harder to come by with the ball taking just 12 wickets with a best of 3-14 against Middlesex, 2-26 against Surrey and six games where he went wicketless. Chris Nash is handily placed to win the CB40 FTI MVP as there are only three other players in the top 25, who have progressed to the semi-final stages. Nash leads Holland's Mudassar Bukhari by 4 points but only Surrey's Jason Roy, 22 points back in tenth, Nash's county colleague Ed Joyce in 15th and Peter Trego of Somerset will contest the knockout stages. Nash has scored 594 CB40 runs at a strike rate of better than a run-a-ball, which represents more than a quarter of the Sharks' competition runs and taken 6 wickets. He made 57 off 46 and took 1-24 in Sussex's latest match against Middlesex. In the LV County Championship (LV=CC) FTI MVP Andre Adams has continued his fine recent form to pull away from Marcus Trescothick. Adams was the leading wicket-taker in the 2010 LV=CC with 68 scalps and he's on course to better that tally after his six wickets against Durham saw him chalk off number 62 last week at Trent Bridge. He also recorded his fifth 50 of the campaign taking him to 508 runs scored at a run-a-ball. In the overall FTI MVP Trescothick leads by 87 points but he looked to have badly damaged his ankle in Somerset's CB40 match against Essex Eagles at Taunton, which could see him sidelined for some time. It has been a bad few days for the Somerset captain who saw his side miss out on the t20 title for the third year running after defeat to the Leicestershire Foxes. Trescothick made just 16 in the final at Edgbaston, while his semi-final effort of 28 from 17 balls was his highest score in 7 t20 innings. .
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