Surrey’s Will Jacks has powered his way to the top of the PCA’s Vitality Blast Most Valuable Player Rankings thanks to a string of match-winning performances.
The all-rounder has opened for the Kia Oval side with the ball and bat in recent fixtures, meaning he has influenced games in the crucial power-plays. He has hit 267 runs at a strike-rate of 153.44 and has contributed with six wickets at a miserly economy of 6.72.
Jacks has been one of the stars for Surrey who have turned around their early season form across competitions to win seven Blast games in a row and have set-up a home quarter-final against Kent, a re-run of Sunday’s victory over our south-east rivals.
A place in Vitality Blast Finals Day will not be the only prize at stake as Kent’s Daniel Bell-Drummond is hot on the heels of Jacks in the race for the 20-over MVP. Jacks has 123.55 MVP points, just 6.43 ahead of the Kent opener who has been in magnificent form all summer and tops the run charts in T20 cricket.
Six of the current top 10 in the Blast specific MVP table will be in quarter-final action on Thursday 1 October, including Ian Cockbain for Gloucestershire who has 109.23 MVP points thanks to 369 runs at a strike-rate of 174.05 and is top of the six-hitting table with 22 maximums in his nine innings.
Stevie Eskinazi leads the way for players who bow out of the competition, he is in fourth position. Arguably, the most impressive name in the top 10 is Yorkshire’s Joe Root, despite only playing in five fixtures he sits in fifth position with a staggering 21.75 per-game MVP total.
England’s Test captain has hit 278 runs at an average of 69.5 and will have done his case for England selection no end of good with his strike-rate of 144.79. Chipping in with seven wickets too, Root underlined his class in a welcome return to the domestic game.
All is to play for with the winner of the Blast MVP taking home a £2,500 cheque. Players have a maximum of three games left and all those in the top 50 can put pressure on Jacks in the tightest race for the Blast MVP in years.
