Daryl Mitchell's purple patch of form in the NatWest T20 Blast means he has replaced Richard Oliver as Worcestershire Rapids leading run-scorer after eight of the 14 North Group games.
Mitchell was promoted to open the innings alongside Oliver after Moeen Ali was called up into the England squad and the first four T20 Blast encounters.
He has responded with three half centuries in the last four innings against Leicestershire Foxes, Derbyshire Falcons and Birmingham Bears.
Before that Mitchell had never scored a T20 fifth but his chances were restricted by batting well down the order for much of time in that format.
Mitchell said: "We talked about it in the winter, myself opening with Mo. Obviously with Richard Oliver coming in, to utilise him we had to get him in at the top of the order and I dropped down to three.
"With Mo being away, I've got my opportunity at the top of the order. It is something I've wanted to do for a while but we've had bigger hitters and more flambuoyant batsmen who were given that opportunity at the top.
"Luckily I've took my chance and hopefully I can stay there for while.
"I've got these first 50s in T20 but I hadn't opened the batting until three or four weeks ago so it goes hand in hand really.
"I've always plied my trade in T20, first as a bowler and then batting in the five six, seven role and coming in and having a slog at the end.
"I really enjoy the new ball coming onto the bat. It's what I do in four day cricket and it's the best time to bat and easiest time to score with the powerplay."
T20 AVERAGES AFTER 8 GAMES
BATTING
Mitchell Matches 8, Innings 8, Not Outs 3, Runs 230, Average 46.00
Munro 8, 8, 1, 225, 32.14
Oliver 8, 8, 0, 189, 23.62
Kervezee 7, 6, 1, 116, 23.20
Kohler-Cadmore 6, 6, 0, 112, 18.67
Whiteley 7, 7, 3, 111, 27.75
Ali 4, 4, 0, 101, 25.25
Cox 7, 6, 5, 37, 37.00
Andrew 1, 1, 0, 20, 20.00
Ajmal 6, 1, 0, 16, 16.00
Shantry 6, 1, 0, 4, 4.00
D'Oliveira 3, 1, 1, 4, —
Morris 2, 1, 1, 2 —
Russell 4, 0, 0, 0 —
BOWLING
Russell: Matches 6, Overs 23, Runs 188, Wkts 16, Average 11.75, Economy 8.17
Shantry 8, 31, 263, 10, 26.30, 8.48
Ajmal 8, 31, 186, 8, 23.25, 6.00
Ali 4, 16, 112, 4, 28.00, 7.00
Munro 8, 15, 120, 3, 40.00, 8.00
Morris 2, 8, 82, 2, 41.00, 10.25
Mitchell 8, 13, 108, 1, 108.00, 8.30
D'Oliveira 5, 14, 110, 1, 110.00, 7.85
Whiteley 8, 2, 23, 0, —, 11.50
