Patel on course for MVP

Samit Patel will take a 24-point lead in the FTI Most Valuable Player Rankings into the final week of the season following his heroics in the Yorkshire Bank 40 final.

The Nottinghamshire all-rounder picked up an extra 19 points at Lord’s by claiming the wickets of three of Glamorgan’s top-order batsmen in a nine-ball burst.

With one game remaining there is now a significant gap between him and second-placed Moeen Ali of Worcestershire in the race to the £10,000 first prize.

Patel will be in action at Trent Bridge as Notts play Somerset in an important battle at the foot of LV= County Championship Division One, while Moeen’s Worcestershire take on Division  Two promotion hopefuls Northamptonshire.

Patel now has 585 points at an average of 14.61 per game and needs just 15 more to break through the 600 points barrier for just the fourth time in the competition’s history.

His performance in the triumph over Glamorgan on Saturday ensured that he finished second in the YB40 specific points table this season, just three points behind Somerset’s Peter Trego.

Earlier this season he went ahead of Trego and his Somerset colleague Marcus Trescothick as the leading accumulative point-scorer in the overall competition since its inception in 2007.

The FTI MVP rewards players for every run scored, wicket taken and catch held. Bowlers receive higher marks for good economy rates, bowling maidens and for dismissing the top order, while batsmen get higher marks for scoring quickly and the percentage of the team’s runs they hit.