Harmer in familiar territory

The 2019 and 2020 PCA MVP, Simon Harmer moved up to second place and subsequently closed the gap to Craig Overton at the top of the MVP Rankings after another match-winning performance in a heavily rain-affected round of fixtures.

Career best figures of 9-80 in the first innings and three crucial wickets in the second innings puts the 32-year old in familiar territory battling it out at the top of the MVP Rankings as he bids to win a third successive award.

Harmer’s display was made possible by 23-year old batsman Dan Lawrence who put on one of the most remarkable knocks of the season so far.

England will be selecting their Test side to face New Zealand this Tuesday and the Essex batsman will believe he has done enough to be included after smashing his way to 152 not out from only 133 deliveries.

Lawrence’s innings included 22 boundaries – six of which sailed over the top of the ropes – as Essex declared on 412-3 allowing the bowlers enough time to seal victory.

An emotional weekend for Durham’s PCA rep, Chris Rushworth who became the all-time wicket-taker in first-class cricket for the county, overtaking Graham Onions previous record of 527 poles.

A superb first innings five-fer and four second innings wickets converted to 39.82 MVP points and gave Durham victory over Worcestershire in the final session of day four having previously declared following centuries from Will Young and Jack Burnham.

Performance of the week in terms of MVP points was witnessed at the Home of Cricket as the ever-impressive Kyle Abbott guided his Hampshire side to victory over Middlesex inside three days.

The 33-year old took 11 wickets in the match – including five-fer’s in each innings – accumulating 55.03 MVP points as he moved up to eighth in the Championship MVP Rankings.

🙌 CHRIS RUSHWORTH APPRECIATION POST 🙌

👏 @DurhamCricket record holder
👏 Nine wickets in the match
👏 Final day victory

😅 What more can we say, @ChrisRush22!

📈 39.82 MVP points

👉 https://t.co/CgK7bryLLW #LVCountyChamp pic.twitter.com/9KN4cH13qM

— PCA MVP Rankings (@pcaMVP) May 16, 2021

An impressive display with the bat saw Jack Leaning accumulate 45.96 MVP points to be named MVP of the Match.

Leaning achieved the highest total in both of Kent’s innings – 63 in a first innings team total of 145, followed by an unbeaten 127 – as he moved inside the top 50 of the County MVP Rankings.

Elsewhere, a heavily rain-affected match in Cardiff resulted in a drawn match between Glamorgan and Yorkshire. England Test captain Joe Root, hit 99 as he went passed 22,000 career runs, Kiran Carlson impressed and went passed 2,000 first-class runs and Michael Neser picked up a five-fer , enough to secure MVP of the Match, with a total of 33.25 MVP points.

More heavy rain in Taunton where Lewis Gregory (11.4) was named MVP for taking two top-order wickets in Surrey’s total of 206/4 – the only innings played across the four days.

The MVP was designed by the PCA in conjunction with the players to identify the top performers in the game. Relaunched in 2021 with assistance from cricket’s leading analytics experts CricViz, the algorithm takes into account key match-defining contributions on top of traditional batting and bowling averages to give the most accurate picture of the best performers in the game.

An MVP will be named for each domestic competition throughout the season, as well as a cross-format Overall MVP come the end of the campaign.

For more information on the brand-new MVP Rankings, contact the PCA’s Head of Communications Luke Reynolds at luke.reynolds@thepca.co.uk or the PCA’s Communications Executive Peter Clark at peter.clark@thepca.co.uk.

View the brand-new MVP Rankings and keep up-to-date with the latest MVP news by following @pcaMVP on Twitter.