Kent all-rounder Darren Stevens and Somerset’s former England batsman Marcus Trescothick demonstrated that there is no substitute for experience with productive weeks in the Professional Cricketers’ Association Most Valuable Player Rankings.
The 41-year-old pair show no sign of easing towards retirement and remain consummate professionals, maintaining high levels of consistency and dedication.
Both made centuries in rain-affected draws in the latest round of Specsavers County Championship matches with Stevens going to the top of both the overall PCA MVP and the rankings for the competition after his 98-ball effort against Leicestershire at Grace Road.
Trescothick made Somerset history with his 50th century for them against Warwickshire, surpassing the joint county record he previously held with Harold Gimblett.
Stevens earned 22 rankings points for his century and eight more for taking two wickets in Leicestershire’s first innings.
He now heads this season’s overall PCA MVP on 238 points, 19 ahead of Yorkshire captain Gary Ballance. In the championship PCA MVP Stevens has 151 points, six more than Hampshire’s Kyle Abbott.
Trescothick had not reached 40 this season before his century against Warwickshire but he ended the match with 40 PCA MVP points as he also made an unbeaten 46 in the second innings to steer Somerset to safety after they followed on.
Unsurprisingly, Stevens and Trescothick remain among the best performers in the championship PCA MVP since the rankings were introduced in 2007.
Stevens has accumulated most points – 2,589 – in the competition, 36 more than Nottinghamshire all-rounder Samit Patel. Trescothick is third in the all-time list on 2,547 points.
The PCA MVP Rankings system identifies the match-winners and key influencers of matches throughout the domestic season.
The formula takes into account conditions, quality of opposition, captaincy and strike-rates as well as runs scored and wickets taken.
Daryl Mitchell, the Worcestershire batsman and PCA Chairman, also enjoyed a week of personal landmarks, passing 3,000 career List A runs and 10,000 for the county in first-class cricket.
Mitchell reached the latter landmark when he got to 87 in Worcestershire’s first innings against Derbyshire. He went on to make 120 which laid the foundations of Worcestershire’s innings win and earned 19 rankings points for his performance.
Colin Ingram, Glamorgan’s South Africa all-rounder, transferred his outstanding form in the Royal London Cup to the championship with a match-saving century against Nottinghamshire at Cardiff.
It was Ingram’s fifth century in all cricket this season but he batted at a much different tempo to his three List A centuries which all came at better than a run-a-ball.
Ingram batted almost seven hours for his 100 and extended his marathon stint to almost 10 hours for his unbeaten 155 before the captains shook hands on the draw.
Ingram’s efforts earned 25 PCA MVP points which took him to third in the overall rankings on 214 points.
The latest PCA MVP Rankings can be viewed here