2020 All Year Fantasy Competition

[Durhamfootman]

did he do anything outrageous.... like earn a point?

I'll happily take 1

[The Professor]

Abbott does not play....have no reason as to why not at this time.

Harmer and Ackermann both feature however

[Durhamfootman]

Abbott is stuck in SA, I think

[Durhamfootman]

I've got a point

a real, live, genuine point

okay, it's taken 8 months, but I'm up and running

[The Professor]

How fitting it is that the man who had the most to lose in the West Indies' tour of England ends with Cricketer of the Week. Holder did not need to be as receptive as he was to call to arms from his board. A smattering of high profile West Indian names opted out. If he had joined them it would have been a fait accompli for the series and, one feels, for his board. But he made the right choice and has got his reward. His weekly haul of 178 is the 6th lowest since the readjustment of our points system at the start of 2019. Despite this you feel like he was rather due his second Cricketer of the Week title. At the end of the First Test, Holder had 259 points for, what transpired to be, his best performance of the series. It was only the indomitable Ben Stokes that stopped the Barbadian from getting top spot. Because we are living in an age of precious little cricket some very low scores topping our weekly lists. Three of our lowest scores have all come in the Corona era and Holder slides in at 6th lowest. This is not to denigrate his achievements. His form in the Third Test was much improved on the Second. His 68 second innings runs offered the Windies a sliver of hope - however it was merely a sliver. Personally, Holder has shot up the table during this series - the steepest part of his climb was this week. The final week before lockdown saw Holder move off bottom spot for the first time since his debut. From there he progressed slowly and steadily up to his current spot in 6th. This week he overtook Marnus Labuschagne, Aaron Finch, Travis Head and (more impressively) Babar Azam. There is now two weeks of inactivity for Holder before the beginning of the CPL. With Azam the next man to face Stokes and Joe Root, he is unlikely to stay there for much longer. When he does play again he will be jostling for a top five place again - it all depends on how much ground is lost in that time.

It was a week of reversed fortune for Stokes and Root. Stokes, who has been so monumental since the cessation of cricket, got a mere 20 points. On the other side of the coin, Root, who looked under baked in the Second Test got the third highest score of the Week. This saw the Yorkshireman jump two places on the list to make it an English one-two at the top of the list. I often criticise Root for a lack of consistency in his performances. The allegation I lay at his door is that he disappears in big games. But how dependable are our Englishmen? Over the last three years we have had eight English players in our Lists. Root has been with us for all three years whilst Stokes is midway through his second year. Jos Buttler had two complete years and Jofra Archer, Jack Leach and Jonny Bairstow had one year. The fairest way to judge their reliability is their average points scored per active week. When the numbers are crunched Joe Root sits just above average with 142.14 points per weeks played. Just as in this year's overall list, he trails Ben Stokes (178.75) with Jofra Archer in second (157). There are caveats galore to these figures. Stokes had a season in the IPL whilst Archer was on our List before he was a Test player meaning he could play the T20 circuit. What it does show is that Root is comfortably comfortable. He'll score what you expect of him about a third of the time, over exceed about a third of the time and fail over a third of the time. He's even Mr Dependable in terms of Cricketers of The Week: one in 2018, two in 2019, one this year. Ploughing away in a typically English manner. Below Root sits Jack Leach averaging 123.71 points per active week. In fifth and sixth are Jonny Bairstow with 119.8 and Jos Buttler 117.83. To be worth your place in this list, and in a team, averaging three figures every week is the expectation. We then turn to the two gentlemen who, thus far, average below that.


It is a double edged sword for Banton and Gregory that they are ton the cusp of the set up when cricket is at such a premium. They are being forced into the limelight at a time when they are rusty. If they do fail, there are fewer avenues for them to get their eye in. The other side of the coin is that if you play your cards right you can get a debut ahead of more established players and throw your hat in the ring. Banton has played his cards wrong and his hat is very much on his head. The Somerset wunderkind got the second highest points this week. This sounds decent until you consider he batted five times in four games of cricket. Such is the desperation for Banton to do well that, on getting out for a duck for Team Moeen he was allowed to bat again for the 'opposition'. He then preceded to get 3. Banton has only had 11 active weeks of cricket this year but averages a mere 69.91 per week. If you remove this busy week from the reckoning, it is an even more dire average of 60.3 - just under half Jonny Bairstow's average. With the final ODI v Ireland tomorrow, Banton needs to get a score orhe could be discarded. Despite his general lack of form, his busy diary has boosted him up a fair few places this week. He overleaps Shubman Gill, Mohammad Nabi and Glenn Maxwell into 14th.

Week

Jason Holder - 178
Tom Banton - 166
Joe Root- 155
Lewis Gregory - 119
Babar Azam - 57
Ben Stokes - 20



Kyle Abbott - dnp
Colin Ackermann - dnp
Aaron Finch - dnp
Shubman Gill - dnp
Martin Guptill- dnp
Peter Handscomb - dnp
Simon Harmer - dnp
Virat Kohli- dnp
Marnus Labuschagne- dnp
Keshav Maharaj- dnp
Glenn Maxwell - dnp
Mohammad Nabi- dnp
Rohit Sharma- dnp
Steve Smith - dnp
David Warner - dnp

Overall

Ben Stokes - 2105
Joe Root - 1314
Martin Guptill - 1243
Keshav Maharaj - 1176
Steve Smith - 1109
Jason Holder- 1069
Babar Azam - 1061
Marnus Labuschagne - 1000
Aaron Finch - 980
Lewis Gregory - 938
Travis Head - 901
David Warner - 821
Virat Kohli - 787
Tom Banton - 769
Shubman Gill - 752
Mohammad Nabi - 701
Glenn Maxwell - 650
Rohit Sharma - 471
Peter Handscomb - 383

Headlines

Arthur moves inteo second and forces Alviro into his lowest position since Week 7.

GG moves into 5th meaning he has moved up 4 places in 3 weeks.

The Proffesor drops two spots.

MIB is the only other mover on the table.



Week

GG - 297
MIB - 166
Arthur - 155
DC - 77

Alviro - 0
DD - 0
DFM - 0
Ian - 0
MIB - 0
The Professor- 0
RD - 0
RDJ - 0

Overall

DC - 3166
Arthur - 2138
Alviro - 2087
GG - 2007
The Professor - 1995
MIB - 1749
RDJ - 1701
DD - 1477
RD - 1437
Ian - 471

[GGAS]

I have certainly climbed since March. Thanks JH!

[The Professor]

I've got a point

a real, live, genuine point

okay, it's taken 8 months, but I'm up and running

Early signs look promising as Harmer and Ackermann were arguably the strongest showing in their respective games today.

[The Professor]

Kyle Abbott is to miss the 2020 County Championship in its entirity....if South African cricket doesn't get started he could be on 0 for the season

[Durhamfootman]

who has Kyle Abbott?

[The Professor]

That would be Ian. Leaves him with just Rohit.

[The Professor]

Our out and out leader, Ben Stokes, is to miss the next two Tests for personal reasons.

[The Professor]

The world has reverted back to normality. Nothing screams status quo more than County Championship teams marching out for a day's toil. It exposes the parochial underbelly of our game whilst also providing blinding performances. This week we spotlight two South African Kolpak players; one a returning champion of our List, the other making his bow. It is the newbie who runs out Cricketer of the Week in his debut week. Colin Ackermann had his leadership skills put to the Test in the opening fixture of the Bob Willis Trophy. After falling six runs short of a century in the first innings, Ackermann's side had under a session left on Day Four with a target of 150. This saw Leicestershire turn the game into a T20 knockabout. This was something the new captain felt very comfortable with. His 73 from 41 balls was a match winning knock for the George born all-rounder. It is only the second time we have seen a player score 30 bonus points for Strike Rate in a County game. Wayne Parnell achieved a similar feat in similar circumstances last August for Worcestershire. Ackermann's haul of 337 points is the fourth highest total of the year and saves him the indignity of ever having the bottom spot. That dubious honour goes to Simon Harmer - a position he is not familiar with. The Essex man was the list topper in year one and finished 2019 in second spot. With these two Kolpaks having at least another four games in this tournament, we should expect to see them fly up the table over the next month.

How definitely can we say that one decent innings can change a career? We are replete with such Sliding Doors moments in sport and had two such incidents in the last week. Jos Buttler, a feature on our List for the last two year, has bought himself more time in the England set up with his knock against Pakistan. In the shorter form of the game, Tom Banton may have done the selfsame thing against Ireland. There is a real force of will behind Banton in the English game. I can't think of a player in recent history that the England setup have been so staunchly set on making it. Banton's name must be mud at Dawid Malan's house. Is this faith starting to pay off though? Across the five games - both warm-up and ODI - he has averaged 17.2 - this includes the game where he got three runs batting for both sides. The final ODI score of 58, whilst very much third fiddle on the night was a promising reminder of his ability.
That performance was by far the most competent he has looked in 2020. This being said, his 98 points was the lowest of the six active players from this week. After making a name for himself in last year's T20 Blast, he looked underwhelming in the BBL and the PSL. He now joins up with Somerset for the Bob Willis Trophy where both he and the powers that be, hope he keeps his foot on the pedal. He moves up to 12th on the overall list and overtakes the Sleeping giants of David Warner and Virat Kohli.

Not to diminish the achievements of the newest member of our top five...but Babar Azam rather underwhelmed for Pakistan in the First Test. Huge things were expected of the Pakistani superstar and things looked good on the first day. Azam had the world coo-ing with delight at his skilfully executed 69. He was one of the best players in the world! Who was he pushing out of the batting top four? Was he better than a Root? Was he better than Smith? The world was being smashed by his willow. Then on Day Two he was out without getting a run and then got five in the second innings. Azam is an outstanding player and he has just displaced Smith in our top five on the List. However he needs to continue to score big and score consistently to be one of the world's best. In that respect I would bracket him with Root. Undoubtedly a great talent but slightly too flighty right now to speak of him in such exulted terms. He does have the highest average of any player in the top ten most runs in the World Test Championship, so runs are unlikely to be eluded for too long. His 86.12 is slightly better than fellow List member Marnus Labuschagne's 83.26. It is guaranteed that the Lahorian will continue to move up our List. He is now 172 points behind Keshav Maharaj and 229 off Martin Guptill. It is very likely he will be in our top three before the end of this series.

Week

Colin Ackermann- 337
Simon Harmer - 249
Joe Root- 109
Babar Azam - 104
Ben Stokes - 99
Tom Banton - 98

Kyle Abbott - dnp
Aaron Finch - dnp
Shubman Gill - dnp
Lewis Gregory - dnp
Martin Guptill- dnp
Peter Handscomb - dnp
Jason Holder - dnp
Virat Kohli- dnp
Marnus Labuschagne- dnp
Keshav Maharaj- dnp
Glenn Maxwell - dnp
Mohammad Nabi- dnp
Rohit Sharma- dnp
Steve Smith - dnp
David Warner - dnp

Overall

Ben Stokes - 2204
Joe Root - 1430
Martin Guptill - 1243
Keshav Maharaj - 1176
Babar Azam - 1165
Steve Smith - 1109
Jason Holder- 1069
Marnus Labuschagne - 1000
Aaron Finch - 980
Lewis Gregory - 938
Travis Head - 901
Tom Banton - 867
David Warner - 821
Virat Kohli - 787
Shubman Gill - 752
Mohammad Nabi - 701
Glenn Maxwell - 650
Rohit Sharma - 471
Peter Handscomb - 383
Colin Ackermann - -337
Simon Harmer - 249

Headlines

DFM goes from being not charted to top scoring for the week and straight into second bottom.

Week

DFM - 586
DC - 203
Arthur - 116
MIB 98

Alviro 0
DD 0
GG 0
Ian - 0
The Professor 0
RD - 0
RDJ 0


Overall

DC - 3369
Arthur - 2254
Alviro - 2087
GG - 2007
The Professor - 1995
MIB - 1847
RDJ - 1701
DD - 1477
RD - 1437
DFM - 586
Ian - 471

[Durhamfootman]

I'm on the board

finally...... I'm actually on the board.

with no Stokes for a while, no other meaningful cricket happening around the world and Harmer taking 14 wickets in every game, I'll be flying up the board. Just need Ackers to start taking 7 wickets in every T20 match and no-one will be able to stop me

[The Professor]

Harmer got 463 today. Root and Azam will have to go some to get more than that over the weekend.

463 is the highest score Harmer has ever got in his illustrious career in this competition. It is the 6th highest score recorded since we removed 5 points for each maiden over at the start of 2019.

Strangely Wayne Parnell has the highest ever score with 485.

[The Professor]

Interestingly he suggest that he might not be an Essex player too much longer as it stands....they'd be mental not to make him their overseas player but it seems to be a larger issue he has

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id ... e-sa-talks