Napier Crowned Twenty20 Most Valuable Player
Graham Napier is the first MVP winner of 2008 walking off with the title of Twenty20 (T20) MVP. The Essex all-rounder grabbed the headlines and top spot in the rankings after his scintillating 152 not out off just 58 balls against Sussex in the group stages and he has refused to let others overtake him since. On final's day Napier couldn't quite deliver the pyrotechnics with the bat that have become his trademark but he still finished the campaign with 326 runs at a strike rate of 1.95 and 16 wickets with an economy rate of 7.02. Napier takes over the title from Luke Wright who enjoyed international recognition and a fabulous 2007-08 on the back of winning the inaugural T20 MVP last season.
Tyrone Henderson lit up the Rose Bowl with his own version of Napier-like hitting on final's day, as he led Middlesex Crusaders to Cup glory, propelling himself up to second in the T20 MVP. The smiling South African clubbed Durham Dynamos out of Hampshire and out of the Cup in the semi with a brutal 59 off 21 balls before playing a key role in the final against the Kent Spitfires. Elevated to number three he scored a quick-fire 43 before bowling the game's last crucial over. Despite being struck for 12 off the first four balls by Justin Kemp, Henderson held his nerve with three runs needed off the last two balls. Kemp played and missed at the penultimate delivery and hit the final ball of this year's Twenty20 cup straight into Henderson's outstretched right hand to trigger the celebration from the men in pink. Henderson's statistics make impressive reading: 281 runs at nearly two runs per ball and 21 wickets with an economy rate of 7.43.
Andrew Hall's T20 campaign finished in the quarter-finals as the Northamptonshire Steelbacks lost to Essex Eagles at Chelmsford but he still did enough to finish third. Hall racked up 233 runs including three fifties and took 20 wickets his best returns 6-21 against Worcestershire and 5-29 versus Glamorgan.
The Kent triumvirate of Azhar Mahood, Yasir Arafat and Joe Denly occupy fourth, fifth and sixth respectively, each having played a huge role in getting the Spitfires to their second consecutive final's day. Arafat was the competition's leading wicket taker with 23 scalps, Denly the leading run-scorer with 451 runs at a strike rate of 1.20 including five fifties, while Azhar was the star with bat and ball at the business end of games. He finished with 294 runs and 15 wickets.
The other star performer of final's day, who appears in the top ten, is Shaun Udal. Hampshire's prodigal son returned to the Rose Bowl in the pink shirt of the Crusaders to strangle the life out of the Dynamos and the Spitfires with his off breaks. Udal, who had earlier taken 3-19 against the Spitfires in the group match at Uxbridge returned figures in the final of 1-21 in what was a high-scoring game, taking the key wicket of Denly in the process. Udal scored 99 runs, took 12 wickets but it was his economy rate of 6-23 across the competition, which helped him to number eight in the final T20 MVP table.
Meanwhile in the overall MVP Ravi Bopara is a big mover after his heroics for the Eagles against the Derbyshire Phantoms in the Pro40. Bopara smashed 112 from just 59 balls as well as taking 4-52 to move him to second in the Pro40 MVP. He lies fourth in the LVCC MVP, second in the FPT MVP and second in the overall MVP with the best points per game ratio (17.95) of anyone in the country.
Martin van Jaarsveld hangs on to top spot overall by having played more games than Bopara. Van Jaarsveld's scored 1574 including seven centuries, taken seven wickets and 25 catches across all cricket. He heads the Essex man by just eight points.
Rankings Bulletins
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