2018 All Year Fantasy Competition

[The Professor]

I was just planning my 2019 team on my run

[Durhamfootman]

Durham has won this one.

shhh.........

bad, bad Arthur!

[The Professor]

In a way that seems almost fair....apart from on me. A lot of contributors have lost someone.

The Professor
Sunil Narine (KKR)
JP Duminy (MI)

Adi
Virat Kohli (RCB)…but will pick up for Surrey shortly.

Andy
AB De Villiers (RCB)

RDJ
Quinton de Kock (RCB) – but has been MIA for last fortnight.

Rich
Ravi Ashwin (KXIP)

DC
Aaron Finch (KXIP)

[The Professor]

Whilst Jadeja has had a far from sparkling performance personally; this is the second Indian final he has found himself in in 2018

[The Professor]

Blow for Andy as ABDV retires from international cricket

[Durhamfootman]

Blow for Andy as ABDV retires from international cricket

however, he'll be playing for Surrey next week and playing SA domestic later in the year, so might end up playing more cricket

[ianp1970]

Blow for Andy as ABDV retires from international cricket

I'll have a deep-sea-diver he plays in the World Cup....

[The Professor]

Rumours that Kohli's spell at Surrey in doubt due to injury and fatigue

[GGAS]

Fs Joe

[The Professor]

Canada T20 franchise league shows video reel at opening ceremony in Toronto announcing Australia's Steve Smith as one of their overseas players for league scheduled to begin June 28. Also includes Narine.

[The Professor]

Many players relish the opportunity to be the hero. Think Lala Amarnath in 1933, think Botham in 1981 and start thinking Rashid Khan in 2018. The thing about the heroism of the Afghanistani player is he seems to enjoy contrasting some world beating performances at the end of tournaments with some pretty mediocre showings just before. He has done this already this year. Afghanistan seemed out of the World Cup Qualifiers earlier in the year but rose Phoenix like and managed to qualify - led, of course, by captain Rashid Khan. This week we have seen a similar pattern. Whilst the Hyderabad bowler's performances this season have been important to his side, he has often lacked consistency and oscillated between non-eventful showings and match-winning displays. This has been epitomised in his three games this week. He began the week with something he manages to do quite often and scored 0 points from the final group stage game against Kolkata. This acted as a counterpoint to the two games that followed where he claimed eight wickets and kept his economy startlingly low, whilst also holding his nerve to help his side into the final. His eight wickets this week weren't any old wickets, however. Not many bowlers would be able to match a weekly haul boasting the likes of Robin Uthappa, Chris Lynn, MS Dhoni, Dwayne Bravo, Virat Kohli, AB De Villiers and Moeen Ali. This performance has not been enough to overhaul Simon Harmer from the top of the overall table, however he has halved the South African's lead and now sits 193 points below the Essex bowler.

His performances over the last fortnight have been so impressive but Kane Williamson has proved himself to be something of an inverse Rashid Khan in the IPL this week. Whilst his Hyderabad team mate stepped up to the plate, the New Zealander got his lowest weekly yield of points for the entire tournament. This will not overly distress him however as he has used the showpiece to boost his position in the overall table - climbing from 11th to 5th on his way to tomorrow's final. He has also come out on top of the trio of batsmen with whom he has been vying over the last month - finishing 167 points above Virat Kohli and 328 above AB De Villiers. Both Bangalore players have had something of an eventful week - and one that will effect their point scoring over the coming months. Kohli's neck injury has seen him forced to cancel his spell with Surrey and put an end to his run of 7 consecutive weeks of point scoring. On the other hand AB De Villiers announced his international retirement which may increase his chances of playing more domestic cricket and T20 competitions - something which will boost his points going forward.

Dean Elgar needs special mention before we wrap up with his highest score for 8 weeks. We are used to praising bowlers Simon Harmer and Jeetan Patel for their domestic performances but this week both Elgar and fellow countryman Hashim Amla have used the bat and the plethora of games in the Royal London One Day Cup to propel them into the top five for the week. Both South Africans languish outside the top ten but will continue to play very regularly over the coming weeks whilst their IPL playing compatriots will now be resting.

Week

Rashid Khan - 284
Dean Elgar- 211
Sunil Narine - 209
Simon Harmer - 168
Hashim Amla- 159
Jeetan Patel - 150
Kane Williamson - 133
Shakib Al Hasan - 120
AB De Villiers- 103
Shaun Marsh - 96
Ravi Jadeja - 83
Jofra Archer- 50
Ravi Ashwin - 40
Aaron Finch - 4
Virat Kohli - 4
George Bailey - dnp
Jos Buttler - dnp
Quinton de Kock- dnp
JP Duminy - dnp
Nathan Lyon - dnp
Mitchell Marsh- dnp
Joe Root - dnp
Steve Smith - dnp
David Warner - dnp

Overall

Simon Harmer - 3095
Rashid Khan - 2902
Sunil Narine- 2617
Jeetan Patel - 2433
Kane Williamson -2338
Virat Kohli- 2171
Jos Buttler - 2064
AB De Villiers- 2010
Nathan Lyon - 1789
Joe Root - 1752
JP Duminy - 1737
Hashim Amla - 1524
Mitchell Marsh - 1425
Ravi Ashwin - 1370
Dean Elgar- 1367
Quinton de Kock - 1292
Shakib Al Hasan - 1268
Aaron Finch - 1243
Shaun Marsh- 1011
Jofra Archer - 965
Ravi Jadeja - 941
David Warner - 752
Steve Smith - 706
George Bailey - 631

Headlines

DFM extends his lead by a further 40 points
Andy gets within a whisker of The Professor
Ian and DC switch back in the only change to last week's order.

Week

DFM - 318
GG-AS - 284
Andy - 236
FTS - 211
The Professor- 209
Ian - 203
Adi - 163
RD - 96
DC - 54
Rich - 40
Arthur - 0
RDJ - 0

Overall

DFM - 5528
GG-AS - 4654
The Professor - 4354
Andy - 4348
Adi - 3695
Rich - 3434
FTS - 3156
Red Devil Jr - 2717
Ian - 2309
Dr Cricket - 2208
Red Devil - 1763
Arthur - 1337

[Durhamfootman]

cheers Prof

I confess to being a little disappointed with this weeks haul. 5 RL matches, but they included one total washout for Jeets, and one rare complete failure for Harms

after collecting 235 points from the first 2 matches of the 5, 318 feels underwhelming (welcome to the real world Mr Footman)

still....... carry on boys.... Young Mr Grace time................"you've all done very well"

[Durhamfootman]

I do have another 5 match week, so plenty of opportunities for the boys to increase my lead

[Durhamfootman]

another failure for Harmer and a second total washout in 3 matches for Jeets.

I was hoping that the one day cup would give me the chance to take full advantage of the end of the IPL

[The Professor]

Jeetan Patel will never get as much credit as Simon Harmer due to the piece of silverware that sits in Essex's trophy cabinet - but this week the Warwickshire captain tops our weekly table for the fourth time. This draws him equal with his South African counterpart, Harmer. It has been a week of Royal London One Day Cup toil for Patel, who is used to having things easier for Wellington. He has has two complete washouts in the last three matches and a couple of average performances including a single wicket against Northamptonshire. His position at the top of the weekly table is largely down to last night's 3/51 against Durham and contributions in the field in that match and in the previous. He also benefits from playing two games when a majority of point scoring contributors have only (just about) managed one. The New Zealand bowler still sits in fourth position overall but is drawing in on third place Sunil Narine who has a period of time out of the game after his IPL toils.

The phrase 'famine or feast' has been applied to Rashid Khan throughout 2018 with a long list of inconsistent performances in both the World Cup Qualifiers as well as the IPL. He took this to a new height this week with two high profile performances that show off two very different sides of his character. In last week's IPL final defeat, Rashid would have been disappointed to not get anything in the wicket column - however his economy was strangling low. His economy of 6 from his 4 overs was coupled with that rare of a thing - a T20 maiden. This does not hide the fact that he got a mere 15 points from this game. His other performance came this week for a World-XI playing the West Indies at Lord's for charity. Here the Afghanistan spinner got the prize wickets of Evin Lewis and Marlon Samuels but had a sky high economy - exactly double what he got in the IPL final. Overall it would have been a disappointing week for the man who sits second in our overall table losing, as he did, both games. He is regularly placing outside the top five in our weekly table and may be concerned about his placing with Bangladesh and India round the corner for Afghanistan.

They need resilience these Cricketers. Five weeks ago, AB De Villiers was the best cricketer of the week and then was at the foot of the table the following week. This week Simon Harmer has done the same thing with a yield of just 11 points from his two games this week. This equates to one run and a catch in the game against Surrey. A fallow period for wickets for the best cricketer in the world statistically. The table topping South African bowler can take hope from the fact that second place Rashid Khan also had a poor week but will not be able to rest on his laurels as Essex try and reach the knock out stage of the Royal London One Day Cup.

Week

Jeetan Patel - 160
Dean Elgar- 117
Jos Buttler - 111
Joe Root - 92
Kane Williamson - 67
Rashid Khan - 64
Shakib Al Hasan - 53
Jofra Archer - 29
Ravi Jadeja - 20
Simon Harmer - 11
Hashim Amla - dnp
Ravi Ashwin- dnp
George Bailey - dnp
Quinton De Kock - dnp
AB De Villiers- dnp
JP Duminy- dnp
Aaron Finch- dnp
Virat Kohli- dnp
Nathan Lyon - dnp
Mitchell Marsh- dnp
Shaun Marsh - dnp
Sunil Narine- dnp
Steve Smith - dnp
David Warner - dnp

Overall

Simon Harmer - 3106
Rashid Khan - 2966
Sunil Narine- 2617
Jeetan Patel - 2593
Kane Williamson -2405
Jos Buttler - 2175
Virat Kohli- 2171
AB De Villiers- 2010
Joe Root - 1844
Nathan Lyon - 1789
JP Duminy - 1737
Hashim Amla - 1524
Dean Elgar- 1484
Mitchell Marsh - 1425
Ravi Ashwin - 1370
Shakib Al Hasan - 1321
Quinton de Kock - 1292
Aaron Finch - 1243
Shaun Marsh- 1011
Jofra Archer - 994
Ravi Jadeja - 961
David Warner - 752
Steve Smith - 706
George Bailey - 631

Headlines

The majority of us have to rely on one player - apart from Ian who had two players represented in the IPL final.
Kane Williamson helps Andy into thrd place
Red Devil Junior has four consecutive weeks of 0

Week

DFM - 171
GG-AS - 156
FTS - 117
Rich - 111
Ian - 73
Andy - 67
Dr. Cricket - 29
Adi - 0
Arthur - 0
The Professor - 0
RD - 0
RDJ - 0

Overall

DFM - 5699
GG-AS - 4810
Andy - 4415
The Professor - 4354
Adi - 3695
Rich - 3545
FTS - 3273
Red Devil Jr - 2717
Ian - 2382
Dr Cricket - 2237
Red Devil - 1763
Arthur - 1337