Bresnan Storms To Top Of MVP Table After Week 8
Tim Bresnan's consistency sees him leapfrog Ravi Bopara by a solitary point at the top of the county MVP. The pair will go head to head at Chelmsford in the Friends Provident Trophy (FPT) semi-final but it is in the championship (LVCC) where Bresnan has stolen a march on his peers after taking six wickets in Yorkshire's win over Somerset at Taunton. Bresnan is ranked top in the LVCC MVP as well as top overall despite not having taken a five-wicket haul or having scored a hundred. He has contributed an impressive 380 runs and 40 wickets and has been making steady progress up the top ten each week.
Bopara scored 43 and 54 as Essex went down to Middlesex at Lord's, which constitutes a poor week by his recent standards. Ranked third in the FPT MVP and sixth in the LVCC MVP he has racked up 1066 runs and 18 wickets overall.
Martin van Jaarsveld, who missed the quarter final of the FPT versus Somerset to be at the birth of his daughter, failed to add to his points tally in week 8 after Rageb Aga removed him for a duck in the rain affected draw against Sussex at Canterbury. He slips to third but has 936 runs and 10 catches to his name to date.
Ian Blackwell has been a big mover in recent weeks after taking ten wickets in his last two championship matches and smashing his first century of the season (158) against Surrey at Whitgift school. In week 8 he took 3-68 and 2-55 as well as scoring 64 in the second innings in Somerset's reverse at the hands of Yorkshire. The former one-day international is ranked 44th in the FPT MVP but has climbed to second in the LVCC MVP and fourth overall with 697 runs and 15 wickets.
Northants captain Nicky Boje is on the move again after a fine all-round showing against Gloucestershire. Scores of 22 and 59 with the bat were eclipsed by bowling figures of 3-87 and 4-32 as Boje steered Northants to their second championship victory of the summer. Boje is in fifth overall with 526 runs and 31 wickets.
Kent's Ryan McLaren slips one to sixth despite adding another three scalps to his impressive wicket tally. The South African took 3-42 in Sussex's only innings as the rain put paid to 169 overs during the first two days of the championship match at Canterbury. He has 215 runs and 35 wickets.
Steve Harmison bursts into the top ten having claimed 15 victims in his last two championship matches. After his hat trick at Hove in week 7, the big fast bowler recorded figures of 2-58 and 6-122 against Hampshire at the Riverside. He also scored a heroic 36 not out from number ten as Durham fell just four runs of an improbable victory.
Yasir Arafat slips to eighth after taking just one wicket in week 8. He has 227 runs and 36 wickets overall.
Samit Patel is in ninth spot largely because of his extraordinary performance in the quarter final of the FPT against Durham where he scored 114 out of 188 and took three wickets. This week in the championship against Lancashire he scored 39 and doubled his wicket tally in the competition with 2-56. He has 508 runs and 18 wickets across both forms.
It was a case of after the Lord Major's show for Matt Prior who followed last week's astonishing lone assault against Durham where he smashed an unbeaten 133 out of Sussex's 202 with a single against Kent before being bowled by James Tredwell. Prior, in tenth spot overall, is the country's leading gloveman with 776 runs, 20 catches and two stumpings.
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