PCA PRESS RELEASE
Somerset slow left-armer Jack Leach, Warwickshire off-spinner Jeetan Patel, Northamptonshire’s former South Africa all-rounder Rory Kleinveldt and Essex seamer Jamie Porter have been shortlisted for the Professional Cricketers’ Association’s Player of the Month Award for September.
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The quarter earned most points in the PCA’s Most Valuable Player Rankings during the month and will now go into a fans’ poll to decide the winner.
Fans can now vote on the PCA and Sky Sports website to decide who will follow Gloucestershire’s Liam Norwell (April), Surrey’s Kumar Sangakkara (May), Essex’s Simon Harmer (June), Derbyshire’s Wayne Madsen (July) and Porter (August) as the sixth and final winner of the monthly awards which were introduced at the start of this season.
The PCA MVP Rankings system was introduced in 2007, an innovation which provides a more rigorous analysis of player performances than traditional batting and bowling averages.
TAUNTON, UNITED KINGDOM – SEPTEMBER 07: Jack Leach of Somerset celebrates the wicket of Jeetan Patel of Warwickshire during Day Two of the Specsavers County Championship Division One match betwen Somerset and Warwickshire at The Cooper Associates County Ground on September 7, 2016 in Somerset, United Kingdom. (Photo by Harry Trump/Getty Images)
The rankings were designed by the players to identify the match-winners and key influencers of matches throughout the domestic season.
Leach earned most points in the PCA MVP during September with 129 which helped Somerset avoid relegation in the Specsavers County Championship.
He earned 40 rankings points in the victory over Warwickshire at Edgbaston at the start of the month and 52 in the victory over Lancashire at Taunton.
Leach ended September by taking five second innings wickets to seal victory over Middlesex which secured First Division cricket for Somerset and sentenced last year’s champions to relegation.
Patel, who topped the PCA MVP Rankings in 2014 and 2016, was unable to save Warwickshire from relegation but he was again their stand-out performer.
The New Zealand Test player’s September haul of 125 points included 80 in the defeat by Yorkshire at Headingley last week.
Patel made 100 from 112 balls in Warwickshire’s first innings and took eight wickets in the match, including six for 50 in Yorkshire’s second innings.
His match points haul was the third highest in the championship since the PCA MVP Rankings were introduced.
Kleinveldt also finished the season strongly with 112 PCA MVP points in September including a 61 points haul from last week’s championship victory over Nottinghamshire at Wantage Road.
Kleinveldt took a career-best nine for 65 in Nottinghamshire’s first innings and added four more wickets in the second to finish with match-best figures of 13 for 98. He also weighed in with the bat, making 43 and 48.
Despite Kleinveldt’s efforts, Northamptonshire narrowly missed out on promotion and he was prevented from adding to his month’s points tally by injury which restricted him to bowling just 11 deliveries against Leicestershire in the season’s finale at Grace Road.
Porter’s contribution to Essex’s first County Championship title in 25 years was 75 wickets. Having earned 116 PCA MVP points in August, Porter finished the season with 111 more points in September.
He took 23 wickets during the month including seven in the match in the victory over Warwickshire at Edgbaston that effectively decided the title.
Porter finished with a match haul of 33 PCA MVP points at Edgbaston and followed up with 25 more points at the Ageas Bowl where Essex beat Hampshire after being made to follow-on.
He ended a memorable season with five wickets in the match and 25 more rankings points in the crushing win over Yorkshire at Chelmsford this week.
