Borthwick wins Royal London Cup Player of the Year

Durham captain Scott Borthwick has won the Royal London Cup Player of the Year after an impressive campaign with bat and ball led his side to the Trent Bridge final.

Although Durham lost the final by 58 runs to an impressive Glamorgan side Borthwick did enough to edge ahead of Essex’s Simon Harmer to top the PCA Most Valuable Player Rankings and therefore be the top performing player in the 50-over competition.

The 31-year-old scored 260 runs and took 10 wickets throughout the competition and led from the front in topping Group 1 and qualifying for the semi-finals. Borthwick then hit 71 off 74 balls and took two wickets for just 44 runs off 10 overs to beat Surrey and make the final with an MVP of the Match performance.

The England international hit three fifties in total but was not able to stop a rampant Glamorgan side who scored 296-9 off before bowling Durham all out for 238 to lift the Royal London Cup.

Borthwick edged out a number of top performers throughout the competition, notably Essex’s Simon Harmer who led the standings in the latter stages with the likes of Graham Clark and Tom Westley also led the pack at different times in a closely fought contest. However, it was the leg-spinner who ended with 140.09 MVP points, just 2.92 points ahead of Harmer.

The Royal London Cup Player of the Year has been selected through the PCA’s Most Valuable Player Rankings. The Durham all-rounder topped the table which was statistically assessed through a new algorithm for 2021. The formula enables players to score or lose points on every ball, based on their expected performance on that ball in comparison with an extensive historical database of 50-over fixtures, with the venue being played at also taken into account. Borthwick also banks a £2,500 cheque after topping the MVP.

Borthwick continues an impressive list of recent winners of the men’s domestic 50-over award with the last three recipients being world renowned stars in Saqib Mahmood (2019), Joe Denly (2018) and Colin Ingram (2017).

Scott Borthwick, Royal London Cup Player of the Year, said: “We’ve played some outstanding cricket this season and we are really proud of what we have achieved.

“I’m very proud of the boys, not just today but over the competition we’ve played some fantastic cricket and unfortunately it wasn’t to be today but congrats to the Glamorgan boys.

“This club has been built on winning trophies and it feels like Durham are back on track now after reaching the one day final.”

The presentation at Trent Bridge on Thursday evening was the first cinch PCA Award of 2021, with awards taking place on Sky Sports in the absence of an in-person event in 2021. Awards including the Vitality Blast, LV= Insurance Test Player of the Summer and Charlotte Edwards Cup players of the year will all be announced following the conclusion of the final ball of each individual format.

Tuesday 28 September is the finale of the cinch PCA Awards with the four headline awards being announced live on Sky Sports during lunch of the opening day of the Bob Willis Trophy final. For the first time at the PCA Awards, there will be a Young Women’s Player of the Year. Following the introduction of 41 domestic professional female players and the creation of the women’s elite domestic structure, players will have the opportunity to vote for a breakthrough star of 2021.

With cinch sponsoring the four player-selected awards; the Men’s, Women’s, Young Men’s and Young Women’s players of the year will all be revealed in a blockbuster presentation of the best performers in English cricket.