MVP One-Day Cup Group Stage Review

Worcestershire, Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire progressed from the North group with Hampshire, Essex and Kent all ensuring they reached the knockout stages from the South group.

After blowing away countless opposition, Kent’s Joe Denly has a healthy lead at the top of the Most Valuable Player Rankings for the One-Day Cup with 146.81 MVP points and will be hoping to add to this as he looks set to face Nottinghamshire in the next round.

Denly has been mightily impressive during the group stage and has been awarded the MVP Man of the Match on three separate occasions, most notably for his performance against Glamorgan where he recorded an unbeaten 150, before taking four opposition wickets for a total of 56 runs.

The Kent batsman propelled to a different level after his performance against Glamorgan and backed this up with another unbeaten century against Gloucestershire, as well as match winning innings against Surrey and Somerset.

Middlesex opener Paul Stirling had a tournament to remember despite his side unable to progress to the latter stages.

Stirling finishes the tournament with three centuries to his name including a final outing of 127 not out against Gloucestershire. Despite a total of 117.01 MVP points, Stirling couldn’t quite get his side over the line as they finish two points off the top 3.

Second place Essex largely have Ravi Bopara and Varun Chopra to thank for their progression with both featuring in the top 10 of the One-Day Cup MVP Rankings, sitting 3^rd and 9^th respectively.

Essex’s inclusion into the latter stages was sealed with a Bopara century in a must-win game against Kent. Bopara sits third in the overall One-Day Cup Rankings with 108.95 MVP points after recording four half-centuries and one century in eight matches.

A high score of 160 accompanied with two half-centuries places Chopra 9^th with 97.33 points.

Having only featured on three occasions, David Willey’s 22^nd place ranking is a remarkable effort as he averages the highest points per game average at 26.85.

In his three appearances, Willey took 11 wickets at an average of 11.8 as well as scoring highest with the bat in two of his three games. 131 runs against rivals Lancashire before a final game 71 against Northants means the fiery Englishman scored a grand total of 202 runs at an average of 67.

Willey’s Yorkshire teammate Tom Kohler-Cadmore is the only Yorkshireman inside the top 10 following four excellent innings in his seven appearances. Scores of 164, 89, 81 and 74 gives the young Yorkshireman a fine batting average of 64 and a total of 101.14 MVP Points to place him 6^th.

Derbyshire’s Billy Godleman and Lancashire’s Liam Livingstone round off the top five in the One-Day Cup Rankings after some excellent individual displays in the group stage.

Godleman finished with 105.83 MVP Points from eight fixtures following two centuries and three half-centuries.

Livingstone recorded four half-centuries in his final four matches with his heavy hitting approach including a top score of 90 not out against Leicestershire to end his 2018 List A campaign with 103.85 One-Day Cup MVP Points.

Worcestershire’s final match one-wicket victory over Warwickshire placed the Pears straight into the semi-final after their top spot finish. Moeen Ali hit a century in the final outing to place him as the highest Worcestershire player in the One-Day Cup Rankings with 87.20 MVP Points, closely followed by Ed Barnard and Callum Ferguson.

Barnard’s terrific form has been consistent across all formats as he sits second in the Overall MVP Rankings with 198.98 MVP Points.

Ferguson’s late introduction to the side has only allowed him to play in four of the Pears fixtures, however, the hard-hitting Australian sits inside the top 20 One-Day Cup Rankings following two special innings against Leicestershire and Northants. Ferguson hit a current 2018 One-Day cup high score of 192 as well as an unbeaten 159 to help him average over 20 MVP Points per game.