22 Mar Maxwell Extends Index Lead
Glenn Maxwell has extended his lead as world No.1 in the T20 Player Index. Maxwell followed up an excellent Big Bash tournament by top scoring in two IT20s for Australia versus India, with his 113 from 55 balls sealing the 2-0 victory for the visitors.
Rashid Khan is hot on Maxwell’s heels, climbing to World No.2 having been one of the key factors behind Afghanistan’s recent 3-0 series victory vs Ireland. He took 11 wickets (including a hat-trick) and managed an economy rate of 6.08 in what was a high-scoring series.
Elsewhere, fellow Afghan Mohammad Nabi also climbs five places to number 12 following his performances with the bat in the same series (147 runs at a strikerate of 181.5 including 81 off 36 balls in the final game) while Harzatullah Zazai’s 162 not out from 62 balls sees him continue his quick climb up the Index, now inside the top 200 for the first time.
England’s 3-0 series win over the West indies was dominated by the English bowlers with Chris Jordan, David Willey, Adil Rashid and Mark Wood all returning multiple wickets as well as maintaining economy rates well below a run a ball. Willey (who took 4 for 7 from 3 overs in the final game) cements his place in the world top 20 while the others gain valuable points improving their Index standings – as did Sam Billings, Jonny Bairstow and Tom Curran who all also put in strong performances in that series.
In the Pakistan Super League, Shane Watson was top scorer with 430 runs at a s/r of 143.8 helping the Quetta Gladiators to their maiden title and tying him in third place in the Index with Sunil Narine.
The top performers in the recent PSL are listed below with their Index positions (pre and post) in brackets:
- Most runs – Shane Watson 430 runs (remains at #4)
- Highest s/r (50+ runs) – Asif Ali s/r of 182.5 (up from #232 to #193)
- Asif Ali also scored the most sixes (26) and Shane Watson scored the most boundaries (65)
- Most wickets – Hasan Ali 25 wickets (up from #86 to #57)
- Best e/r (10+ overs) – Mohammad Abbas e/r of 5.75 (#677 to #489 – top 500 for the first time)
- Abbas also had the highest percentage of dot balls (51.3%)
- Also worth noting that Ali Shafiq, playing in his first Index tournament, bowled 5.4 overs with an e/r of 3.53 (he enters the Index at #1177)
- Most catches – Kieron Pollard (remains at #21) and Luke Ronchi (down from #58 to #76) both took 10 catches
- Pollard also scored the 3rd most runs and had the 2nd highest s/r
- The highest climber in the top 100 was Fahim Ashraf (up 65 places from #144 to #79) following a strong all-round performance
- The highest climbers in the top 500 were Aamer Yamin (up 390 places from #831 to #441) and Umar Amin (up 235 places from #681 to #446)
To see the men’s Index rankings please click here.