Essex pair in running to top County Championship PCA MVP Rankings Essex pair Jamie Porter and Simon Harmer are in contention to finish top of this season’s Professional Cricketers’ Association Most Valuable Player Rankings for the Specsavers County Championship. Their wickets have been instrumental in taking Essex to their first championship since 1992 with the title being confirmed after they routed Warwickshire by an innings in three days and Lancashire were then beaten by Somerset. With two rounds of matches still to play paceman Porter and former South Africa off-spinner Harmer are now vying for top spot in the championship rankings. Porter climbed to second with a 33 points match haul at Edgbaston, 18 of them for taking four for 62 in Warwickshire’s first innings and 13 for his three for 37 in the second. He has now taken 64 championship wickets this season and amassed 316 PCA MVP points in the competition. Harmer is fourth in the championship rankings with 298 points, 31 of them for his eight wicket match haul against Warwickshire. Harmer took four for 47 in the first innings and collected 11 rankings points and improved on that in the second innings with four for 25 and 16 points. He has now taken 63 wickets in the championship this season. Kent all-rounder Darren Stevens regained the lead of the championship rankings after another productive four days in the draw with Gloucestershire at Bristol. Stevens made a rapid half century in Kent’s first innings and earned nine PCA MVP points and took eight wickets in the match, including his seventh five wicket haul of the season, to add 28 bowling points. Stevens now has 319 championship rankings points this season, three more than Porter and 20 more than Hampshire’s former South Africa paceman Kyle Abbott, the man he replaced at the top of the points table. The PCA MVP Rankings system identifies the match-winners and key influencers of matches throughout the domestic season. The formula takes into account conditions, quality of opposition, captaincy and strike-rates as well as runs scored and wickets taken. Samit Patel still leads the overall PCA MVP, which carries a prize of £ 10,000, but his lead was reduced during a week off for Nottinghamshire. Patel has earned 512 point in all competitions this season with Somerset pace bowler Craig Overton now second with 445 points. Glamorgan all-rounder Colin Ingram is third with 442 points, one ahead of Stevens, with Sussex’s rookie paceman Jofra Archer fifth on 427 points. Harmer is ninth in the overall PCA MVP with 411 points and Porter is 11th, just two points behind Lancashire’s Ryan McLaren in tenth place.
