Northeast and Coles move into top 5 of FTI MVP ratings
Thursday 4th June 2015
Batsman Sam Northeast and all-rounder Matt Coles have moved into the top five of the Most Valuable Player Rankings.
Northeast has used a strong start in the Natwest T20 Blast to catapult himself up to third, while Coles lies fifth.
Northeast has smashed 330 T20 runs at a strike rate of 161 runs per 100 balls with scores of 40, 60 not out, 20, 96 and 114.
He has contributed more than 20% of Kent’s runs each time he’s batted and 37.80% of the team’s total competition runs.
He’s scored 198 in boundaries (36×4, 9×6) and is currently top of the Natwest T20 Blast MVP.
Northeast has been no slouch in the LV County Championship (LV=CC) either, notching five fifties and four other 20+ scores from 12 innings to take his competition tally to 518 runs at a strike rate of 57 runs per 100 balls.
Sitting ominously behind Northeast in second place in the T20 Blast MVP is one Chris Henry Gayle. The West Indies megastar sets the standard in T20 cricket and has already smashed 243 runs, 81.48% of which have come in boundaries (18×4, 21×6), from just two matches.
He warmed into the Blast with 92 off 59 balls at Chelmsford before taking Kent for an unbeaten 151 from 62 balls at Taunton in an awesome display of power-hitting.
Gayle is the only player in the competition to have a strike rate of more than 200 runs per 100 balls. Six players are in excess of 190 and 24 players are striking at better than 150 runs per 100 balls. Gayle has contributed 60.60% of Somerset’s runs in the two games he’s played.
Coles has enjoyed his second stint at The Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence scoring 221 runs, taking 38 wickets and 10 catches across all forms. He’s been remarkably consistent in the LV=CC taking 31 wickets without – as yet – registering a five-wicket haul.
He’s taken seven wickets in the Blast and while an economy rate of 10.33 runs per over is higher than he’d like, Kent have played on some very good wickets where the scores have been high. Coles is ranked tenthin the LV=CC MVP and 16thin the T20 MVP.
See Kent Spitfires take on Hampshire next Friday (12 June) at The Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence (7pm start, gates open at 5pm) as part of the Pimm's Girls' Night Out.