Worcestershire all-rounder Joe Leach is occupying third spot in the Professional Cricketers' Association Overall Most Valuable Player Rankings heading into the final third of the campaign.
Leach goes into today's home Specsavers County Championship clash with Glamorgan on 367 points – two behind Warwickshire's Rikki Clarke who has edged in front of him.
The 25-year-old Leach has taken 40 Championship wickets, picked up another 20 in the NatWest T20 Blast and has made several valuable contributions with the bat in red and white ball cricket.
But leading the way by 50 points is Hampshire's Liam Dawson who became the first player in the country to top 400 PCA MVP points this season with 30 points from last week’s drawn County Championship match against Lancashire at the Ageas Bowl.
Nottinghamshire all-rounder Samit Patel, who has the most PCA MVP points in formats since the rankings system was introduced in 2007, is in fourth place on 358, level with Toby Roland-Jones of Middlesex.
Dawson, who won his first England cap in the T20 International against Sri Lanka at the Ageas Bowl earlier this season, has been in outstanding form in white ball cricket this season.
Although Dawson is only 99th in the County Championship rankings he is top in the Royal London One Day Cup PCA MVP which has already secured him an invitation to play for the South in the three-match series against the North in the United Arab Emirates next March.
He is third in the NatWest T20 Blast PCA MVP, but the highest-ranked England-qualified player, with only Glamorgan’s South African all-rounder Colin Ingram and Gloucestershire’s Australian batsman Michael Klinger ahead of him.
Warwickshire all-rounder Keith Barker currently leads the Specsavers County Championship PCA MVP with 279 points, 52 ahead of Lancashire’s Kyle Jarvis and Durham opener Keaton Jennings.
Barker took 21 points from Warwickshire’s defeat by Yorkshire at Headingley last week which included 16 for taking four for 55, which included two wickets in the top four of the order.
The PCA MVP was introduced in 2007 and is designed by the players to find the cricketers who really win matches by combining all aspects of a player’s performance to give a ranking in relation to his peers.
The revised MVP formula gives full credit to those players whose performances improve their team’s chances of winning.
Points are accrued for all runs scored and wickets taken; these are then adjusted within the context of the match to take into account strike rates and economy rates.
Runs gain more points if they are scored quickly or in low-scoring contests.
Top order wickets taken at the start of the innings are judged more valuable than those that fall later, and bowlers who bowl their overs cheaply (in the context of the match) are given due reward for doing so.
The weightings in the revised formula have been scaled so as to provide continuity with previous seasons, ensuring that the value of an MVP point this year is equivalent to those allocated under previous formulae.
TOP TEN
1 Dawson Hants 419
2 Clarke Warks 369
3Leach Worcs 367
4 Patel Notts 358
5 Roland-Jones Middx 358
6 Patel Warks 356
7 Borthwick Durham 351
8 Jennings Durham 349
9 Bopara Essex 347
10 Northeast Kent 345
