Joyce heads MVP standings

Ed Joyce leads the 2014 FTI MVP after scoring a hundred in each innings of a game for the first time in his career.

The Sussex captain made 117 and 151 not out to lead his team to victory over Warwickshire at Edgbaston and in the process racked up 73.27 rankings points, the sixth-best points haul in the history of the MVP for a single match. Martin van Jaarsveld tops this list after scoring 114 and 115 and taking 5-33 against Surrey at The Oval in 2008.

Unsurprisingly Joyce is the leading run-scorer in this year’s campaign. His 280 LV= County Championship runs represent 29.54 per cent of Sussex’s runs and he has achieved them at the impressive rate of 69 runs per 100 balls. Joyce’s best showing in the FTI MVP Rankings was back in 2009 when he finished 14th overall and topped the 50-over Friends Provident FTI MVP.

ED JOYCE 151 NOT OUT @edjoyce24 #GOSBTS

— Sussex CCC (@SussexCCC) April 16, 2014

Sussex’s strong start to the season, which sees them top of Division One, is reflected in the FTI MVP Rankings with three of their players occupying the top four spots.

Steve Magoffin is third having already taken 14 wickets. The Australian seam bowler has returned figures of 3-21 and 5-65 versus Middlesex and 3-15 and 3-88 against Warwickshire.

Magoffin has real pedigree in the rankings, finishing seventh in the 2013 LV=CC FTI MVP after scoring 187 runs and taking 63 wickets from 15 games and having topped the LV=CC FTI MVP the year before with 363 runs and 57 scalps in 15 appearances.

Sussex’s new recruit, Jon Lewis, is fourth with 39 runs and 10 wickets. The former Gloucestershire and Surrey bowler ripped the heart out of Middlesex’s middle order at the BrightonandHoveJobs.com County Ground in his first match for Sussex, taking 4-34 and did a similar first-innings job on Warwickshire with 3-18.

Splitting the men from the south coast is Middlesex’s Steven Finn, who is the leading wicket-taker in the current campaign with 15 victims. He took 6-80 in defeat to Sussex and consolidated that form with 5-91 and 4-82 in the win over Nottinghamshire at Lord’s. He is second on 76 points, four behind Joyce.

Worcestershire skipper Daryl Mitchell can be extremely pleased with his side’s start to the season. Unfancied by many after the retirement of spearhead Alan Richardson, Worcestershire enjoyed a creditable draw against Hampshire at the Ageas Bowl and this week they beat Kent convincingly at home.

Mitchell notched 172 not out against Hants and then 47 and 27 in the low-scoring affair at New Road. He is second in the run-scoring charts behind Joyce with 246 runs.

OVERALL FTI MVP