2018 All Year Fantasy Competition

[The Professor]

Won't make the cut for this weekend's points, lamentably.

[Durhamfootman]

no... but that's okay. it'll put something in the bank for next week, and Jeets has already netted me 400 and odd for this week

[Durhamfootman]

Jeets has started another match, so I'll have 2 in the mix for next week

[The Professor]

Why spin bowlers do so well in these rankings proves elusive to me. Jeetan Patel is the third spin bowler after Nathan Lyon and Simon Harmer to sit atop the table for cricketer of the week. Perhaps the reason is that they keep such low economies coupled alongside, occasionally, devastating wicket taking abilities. This was certainly the case for the veteran New Zealand international in his game for Wellington this week. The very well rested player has not played a game since the 14th January and has long sat rock bottom of our overall table. This was drastically put right with a ten wicket match and a stunning 21 maidens - the highest I can remember for any player in 2018. With the County Championship just around the corner, Patel will hope to continue to put his mark on the overall table for Warwickshire. It is now Ravi Jadeja who holds the unenviable position of lowest scoring player.

Another long absent player that had a smashing week on return was Shakib Al Hasan - however this smashing was more literal than he would have liked. After six weeks out of the game, the former table topping allrounder got 27 points but then proceeded to be involved in a high profile spell of defiance which saw the glass in the Bangladesh dressing room getting smashed. The Jessore born man has a plethora of domestic T20 games round the corner but is a mile away from the top ten due to his lengthily injury - despite this we know he is capable of inflicting big hitting deliveries on more than just glazing so we could see him edge up the table.

It was a confusing week for two Test playing regulars. For Joe Root, this was down to the fact that he was playing practice matches against a New Zealand XI, however it is amusing to see him pick up almost as many points for his bowling as for his batting. The part time spinner looked slightly more than part time against the rather green batsmen of New Zealand's second tier. This, plus his 166 runs across two games, has seen him push into the top five of the overall table with a comfortable cushion ahead of 6th place Mitchell Marsh. The next player in his sights is Sunil Narine, who is expected to have a spell out of the game once the PSL finishes this week. If Root keeps up this pressure he will move even further up the table.

Any casual observer of Test cricket will say that strike rate is not where the players are likely to pick up too many of their points. AB De Villiers has been the exception to this in the Second Test. In a Test series that has seen no player pull away from the pack in a dramatic fashion, De Villiers was prolific with both runs scored (154) and strike rates (86.30 and 107.69). This has seen him pick up 214 - his highest score for a week by some margin - and place him as the highest South African international on the overall league. He is in massive form since his international comeback with five 50s in 10 innings and rightly deserves to be ascending the table.

No doubt the South Africa- Australia Test series is proving entertaining - but it is also throwing up some unlikely high scorers. From just this week's table we see the aforementioned AB De Villiers at the top of the table, alongside Nathan Lyon and the unassuming Mitchell Marsh. Down at the other end of the table we see (perhaps expectedly) Shaun Marsh but then followed by Steve Smith and Dean Elgar. This has very much been a Test series geared up for the allrounder rather than the prolific runscorer. In fact the word prolific is not an adjective you would associate with either Steve Smith or Dean Elgar in 2018 - who have both looked unassuming compared to their heroics of 2017. This is reflected in their positions in the bottom third of the overall table.

Week

Jeetan Patel - 436
Joe Root - 361
Rashid Khan - 234
AB De Villiers- 214
Nathan Lyon - 167
JP Duminy - 134
Mitchell Marsh - 124
Sunil Narine - 116
Hashim Amla - 103
David Warner - 96
Quinton de Kock- 89
Dean Elgar - 82
Ravi Ashwin - 68
Steve Smith- 56
George Bailey - 46
Shakib Al Hasan - 27
Aaron Finch - 25
Shaun Marsh - 25
Jofra Archer - dnp
Jos Buttler - dnp
Simon Harmer - dnp
Ravi Jadeja - dnp
Virat Kohli - dnp
Kane Williamson - dnp

Overall

Rashid Khan - 1758
JP Duminy - 1659
Simon Harmer - 1593
Sunil Narine- 1450
Joe Root - 1308
Mitchell Marsh - 1245
Virat Kohli- 1231
Nathan Lyon - 1225
Jos Buttler - 1026
Aaron Finch - 999
Kane Williamson -906
Ravi Ashwin - 878
AB De Villiers- 778
Quinton de Kock - 670
David Warner - 650
Steve Smith - 633
Shakib Al Hasan - 635
Hashim Amla - 598
George Bailey - 560
Dean Elgar- 557
Jofra Archer - 550
Jeetan Patel - 544
Shaun Marsh- 506
Ravi Jadeja - 412

Headlines

A clear top three begins to emerge
DFM tops the table for the second week in a row.
Red Devil off the bottom

Week

GG-AS - 595
DFM - 436
The Professor- 250
FTS - 249
Andy - 214
RDJ - 213
RD - 121
Adi - 103
Arthur - 102
Rich - 68
Ian - 27
DC - 25

Overall

The Professor - 3109
GG-AS - 3066
DFM - 2137
Red Devil Jr - 1915
Rich - 1904
Adi - 1839
FTS - 1782
Andy - 1684
Dr Cricket - 1549
Arthur - 1193
Red Devil - 1156
Ian - 1047

[Arthur Crabtree]

Getting stretched out now.

[Durhamfootman]

cheers Prof

I've started from a long way back, and I'm still 1000 points off the top, but it feels like I'm on the charge at last. I have both players playing and scoring decent points, and with the meat grinder that is the county championship just around the corner, I hope to have the chance to see them both scoring every week, instead of the every other week that their home nation clubs currently offer.

I have 350ish Harmer points from his penultimate Sunfoil match already in the bag for next week and Jeets has just started his latest Shield match too, with 2 further matches remaining, so I'm hopeful that I can start eating into that lead at the top between now and the start of the county season

[Durhamfootman]

5fer for Jeets last night and a day 4 pitch to look forward to tonight

[Durhamfootman]

no wickets, but I still think that I've posted the highetst weekly score to date

[Durhamfootman]

well this isn't going to plan at all. 2 days into Harmer's final sunfoil match of the season and they haven't even managed to have the toss yet

[Arthur Crabtree]

Smith has gone to pieces since he joined my stable.

Bailey decided he's had enough of the game.

[Durhamfootman]

Smith has gone to pieces since he joined my stable.

pity you hadn't picked him before the ashes started

[meninblue]

After Amla got a county cricket contract, Virat has decided to opt for some county matches as preparation before England test series. That should help me get more points.

[The Professor]

What with no completed Test matches this week, there is a severe paucity of cricket to write about this week. In fact only five of our Cricketers played. Despite this, it does not detract from two outstanding performances in domestic cricket for two outstanding spinners. Between them Simon Harmer and Jeetan Patel got thirteen wickets. This week's cricketer of the week, Simon Harmer, bagged the lion's share with 8 for the Warriors against the Knights with Patel chipping in a fivefer in his first innings for Wellington against Central Districts. Both of these domestic stalwarts have coupled their wicket taking impetus with rock bottom economies, with Patel's figures of 19-12-13-0 being the most eye-catching. The spin twins are having fans of the County Championship salivating with the hope they will continue this fine form in the coming months.

Another 330 points for Rashid Khan further extends his dominance in the overall table despite his team's poor form in the World Cup Qualifiers. He is also the first player to break the 2000 point barrier in the overall point league, with Simon Harmer 52 points away from that accolade. In what has been a very wicket heavy week for the top scorers in the weekly league, the Afghanistan spinner bagged 8 in two games - meaning that the top three for the week shared 21 wickets between them in their three different tournaments. Whilst he will be at a personal low, Rashid can cling on to a great stat. The spinner has by far the highest wicket tally for any player after 43 ODIS at 99 - with 12 more than second place Mitchell Starc.

Ending the big hitters section, we can now look at two Cricketers who played but maybe did not contribute as much as they'd have liked. Shakib Al Hassan played in the final of the Nidahas Trophy and, with a great sense of deja vu, did exactly the same as he did the previous week - scored 7 runs and got one wicket. This gave him his second consecutive score of 27. Despite the relatively small total posted, due to the lack of other cricket going on this week, he has still moved up the table two places to sit in sixteenth place. On top of this today is his birthday - a welcome present for the 31 year old.

But one player who will be disappointed is JP Duminy - who joins the small list of players who have played a game but scored zero points. Going against Cricket South Africa, Duminy decided to join his Islamabad teammates in Pakistan and - despite the potential risk - did not bat nor bowl. Up until this point Duminy was the only player to have registered points in every game week - an impressive spell brought to an end.

Week

Simon Harmer - 355
Jeetan Patel - 340
Rashid Khan - 280
Shakib Al Hasan - 27
Hashim Amla - dnp
Jofra Archer - dnp
Ravi Ashwin - dnp
George Bailey - dnp
Jos Buttler - dnp
Quinton de Kock- dnp
AB De Villiers - dnp
JP Duminy - dnp
Dean Elgar - dnp
Aaron Finch - dnp
Ravi Jadeja- dnp
Virat Kohli - dnp
Nathan Lyon - dnp
Mitchell Marsh - dnp
Shaun Marsh - dnp
Sunil Narine - dnp
Joe Root - dnp
Steve Smith - dnp
David Warner - dnp
Kane Williamson - dnp

Overall

Rashid Khan - 2038
Simon Harmer - 1948
JP Duminy - 1659
Sunil Narine- 1450
Joe Root - 1308
Mitchell Marsh - 1245
Virat Kohli- 1231
Nathan Lyon - 1225
Jos Buttler - 1026
Aaron Finch - 999
Kane Williamson -906
Jeetan Patel - 884
Ravi Ashwin - 878
AB De Villiers- 778
Quinton de Kock - 670
Shakib Al Hasan - 662
David Warner - 650
Steve Smith - 633
Hashim Amla - 598
George Bailey - 560
Dean Elgar- 557
Jofra Archer - 550
Shaun Marsh- 506
Ravi Jadeja - 412

Headlines

The Professor knocked off top spot.

DFM registers highest weekly score.

No one else does nothing.

Week

DFM - 695
GG-AS - 280
Ian - 27
Adi - 0
Andy - 0
Arthur - 0
DC - 0
FTS - 0
The Professor - 0
Red Devil - 0
Rich - 0


Overall

GG-AS - 3346
The Professor - 3109
DFM - 2832
Red Devil Jr - 1915
Rich - 1904
Adi - 1839
FTS - 1782
Andy - 1684
Dr Cricket - 1549
Arthur - 1193
Red Devil - 1156
Ian - 1074

[Durhamfootman]

impeccable as ever, Prof.

Harmer's final sunfoil match finally got underway. He should be bowling at some stage tomorrow (day 4) and so I guess this is now all about trying to rescue some sort of score. It might even rain again... who knows?

perhaps the pitch could be dried with the help of a little yellow tape?

[Durhamfootman]

raining in the Plunket Shield too, I see.