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Gloucestershire bowler wins trophy after outstanding season.
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David Payne has won the 2024 Vitality Blast Player of the Year after finishing top of the PCA’s Most Valuable Player Rankings.
The Gloucestershire all-rounder took a phenomenal 33 wickets, finishing the tournament as the leading wicket-taker and equally the record for the most amount of wickets in an English domestic T20 season, as his side lifted the trophy on Finals Day at Edgbaston.
A relatively low-scoring day didn’t stop the drama with Gloucestershire chasing down 125 just two wickets down with 30 balls to spare to win their first ever T20 trophy, as Payne took fantastic figures of 3-27 helping to dismiss Somerset for 124.
The Vitality Blast Player of the Year award is decided by the PCA Most Valuable Player (MVP) Rankings with the unique formula taking into account expected performance on every ball according to CricViz’s extensive database. The algorithm also considers the historic performances of the venue each fixture is being played at, therefore giving a more accurate reflection of the top performers in the game than traditional batting and bowling averages do.
With a plethora of standout performances throughout the Vitality Blast, Payne won the Vitality Blast Player of the Year by securing 279 MVP points.
The 33-year-old took 33 wickets at an average of 12.8 with an impressive economy rate of 6.29.
Payne won an incredible five Match MVP awards in the competition. The first coming against Essex where he earnt 38 MVP points for fantastic figures of 4-24, which included a maiden, in a five-wicket win for Gloucestershire.
The left-armer picked up further Match MVPs against Hampshire and Sussex, before taking 4-25 against Kent, adding another 31 points to his MVP total.
In the Vitality Blast quarter-final against Birmingham Bears, the left-arm pace bowler won a further Match MVP and secured 23 points for a brilliant bowling display of 4-23, which not for the first time in the competition included a maiden over, as Gloucestershire progressed to Finals Day with a 14-run victory.
Payne received his Vitality Blast Player of the Year trophy produced by Mappin & Webb along with £2,500 prize money during the post-match presentation and said: “This won’t sink in for a while, I’m feeling a lot of emotion and a huge amount of pride for this group right now.
“I’ve never felt better with my bowling, I moved to a white-ball contract to look after my body and I think it was the best decision I’ve ever made. The reason you stay at a club like Gloucestershire is for days like this because it means so much more.”
A wonderful day for Gloucestershire was made even more special as their President David ‘Syd’ Lawrence was in attendance as a beneficiary guest of the Cricketers’ Trust, having recently been diagnosed with motor neurone disease.
Also impressing during the tournament was Birmingham Bears all-rounder Dan Mousley who scored 385 runs at an average of 32.1 and a strike-rate of 136.5, alongside taking 15 wickets at 22 a-piece with a more than useful economy rate of 6.78, earning him 248 MVP points.
The 23-year-old won three Match MVP awards in this year’s Blast, exemplifying his capabilities with both bat and ball.
Against Worcestershire, the left-handed batter produced a quick-fire innings of 68 off 44 balls including four fours and three sixes, as well as figures of 1-29 off his four overs adding another 48 MVP points to his total.
Essex batter Michael Pepper also enjoyed a fruitful run-scoring tournament, amassing 535 runs at an average of 44.6, which included two hundreds.
The 26-year-old earnt 229 MVP points during the competition to finish in third place, winning three Match MVP awards along the way.
His most impressive performance came against Sussex when he smashed an unbeaten 120 off just 53 balls which included nine fours and nine sixes.
