Ingram in running for treble in PCA MVP Rankings Glamorgan’s former South Africa all-rounder Colin Ingram is on course for a treble in this season’s Professional Cricketers’ Association Most Valuable Player Rankings. Ingram has already finished top of the Royal London One Day Cup PCA MVP and he is second in the rankings for the NatWest T20 Blast and the overall PCA MVP, which covers all formats. A 35 points haul from Wednesday’s crushing victory over Leicestershire in the Blast quarter-final moved Ingram to within 25 points of Derbyshire’s Wayne Madsen whose hopes of adding to his 211 points in the competition ended with defeat by Hampshire the previous evening. Ingram earned 26 batting points for his 43-ball 70 not out against Leicestershire having collected five points for his miserly bowling. Ingram briefly closed the gap at the top of the overall PCA MVP Rankings to 12 points before Samit Patel impressed with bat and ball in Nottinghamshire’s quarter-final victory over Somerset on Thursday to go 30 points clear. Patel has climbed to fifth in the Blast rankings and, like Ingram, he will have the opportunity to overtake Madsen on Finals Day at Edgbaston on September 2. Patel has 163 Blast points with his county team-mate Alex Hales, who is in eighth place on 152 points, and Hampshire captain James Vince, sixth with 155 points, also with potential to improve their final placings on Finals Day. 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. The performance of the week came from Hampshire’s veteran Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi who pummelled a 42-ball century against Derbyshire. The innings swept Afridi to the top of the leaderboard for the Walter Lawrence Trophy, which is awarded for the fastest century in county cricket each season, and also earned 34 PCA MVP batting points. Afridi scored his runs at a rate of 2.36 and he contributed almost 41 per cent of Hampshire’s runs in a one-sided contest. Before the NatWest Blast T20 Finals Day there is a round of Specsavers County Championship matches to be played with Hampshire’s former South Africa pace bowler Kyle Abbott currently leading the competition rankings. Abbott has 266 points in championship cricket, 30 more than Darren Stevens, the Kent all-rounder, and Essex’s former South Africa off-spinner Simon Harmer. Stevens needs only 29 more rankings points to become only the second player after Patel to reach the 5,000 career points landmark in all cricket since the PCA MVP system was introduced in 2007. To see the full PCA MVP table click here. {{ak_sharing}}
