Two-ton Mitchell makes his move

Worcestershire captain Daryl Mitchell was the big mover in this week’s FTI MVP rankings after scoring a brace of hundreds against Glamorgan at the SWALEC Stadium.

The 30-year-old is now the leading run-scorer in the LV= County Championship with 532 at a strike rate of 44 runs per 100 balls and is up to third in the rankings.

He opened his campaign with 172 not out at the Ageas Bowl against Hampshire and found the Glamorgan attack even more to his liking with scores of 109 and 151 not out.

Mitchell has contributed 29.36 per cent of Worcestershire’s competition runs this season and the FTI MVP rankings suggest he is a player who is getting steadily better every year.

He has finished in the top 30 for the past two summers and in the top 60 for the three prior to that. Mitchell earns captaincy points for Worcestershire’s two victories and has joined Steven Finn on 128 points eight behind Glamorgan’s Graham Wagg.

Wagg enjoyed another solid game taking five Worcestershire wickets in Cardiff as he returned figures of 4-75 and 1-52.

He has scored 166 runs at the impressive strike rate of 75 runs per 100 balls and claimed 21 wickets with an economy rate of 3.11 runs per over.

Wagg’s best performance came at the Kia Oval when he took 6-29 against Surrey in round one, then last week he took 4-107 and 4-65 against Leicestershire either side of posting 57 from 54 balls with the bat.

Both Wagg and Mitchell lose 20 per cent of their LV= County Championship points because they play in division two.

Finn – who plays first division cricket with Middlesex – does not suffer that deduction but he does run into the likes of Warwickshire wicketkeeper-batsman Tim Ambrose, whose 167 was the same score as Middlesex’s first-innings total at Edgbaston.

Finn top-scored with an unbeaten 37 in that innings and did remove Ateeq Javid and Keith Barker early on day two to reduce Warwickshire to 140 for six, but they were his only successes. Finn still leads the wicket-takers with 25 but he only took 17 points from the game to lose ground on Wagg.

Lewis Gregory is the surprise package of the top five.

The Somerset opening bowler, who is approaching his 22nd birthday, has 22 wickets to his name this season, and 17 away from home.

He started slowly with just one victim against Yorkshire at Taunton but then took eight in the match against Durham at the Emirates Durham ICG.

He bettered that performance with 5-49 and 4-48 in the win over Sussex at the BrightonandHoveJobs.com County Ground, a match in which he also contributed 47 off 51 balls with the bat.

This week he claimed 4-80 in Nottinghamshire’s first innings.

If Gregory can maintain that form it will represent a breakthrough season for him – he has finished 234th, 237th and 180th in the rankings over the past three years.

Australia opening batsman and Middlesex four-day captain, Chris Rogers, completes the top five.

Rogers made 34 and 82 in his team’s defeat at Edgbaston to take his tally for the season to 481 runs at a strike rate of 74 runs per 100 balls.

Rogers made 241 not out in Middlesex’s 472 for three to beat Yorkshire at Lord’s the previous week, the third-highest successful run-chase in the history of the County Championship.

Rogers has contributed 26.43 per cent of his side’s runs. His opening partner, Sam Robson, tipped by many for higher honours this summer, has scored 20.60 per cent of Middlesex’s runs.

OVERALL FTI MVP