Brilliant Bresnan is new MVP

10 June 2008

Tim Bresnan has been his side's go-to man all season

Tim Bresnan’s all-round contributions catapults him to top spot of the MVP table.

The Yorkshire fast bowler leapfrogs longstanding leader Ravi Bopara by one point by virtue of the six wickets he took in Yorkshire’s narrow LV County Championship win over Somerset at Taunton.

He has contributed an impressive 380 runs and 40 wickets and has been making steady progress up the top ten each week.

Bopara scored 43 and 54 in Essex’s innings defeat by Middlesex at Lord’s, and he remains ahead of Kent’s Martin van Jaarsveld, who missed the quarter-final of the Friends Provident Trophy as he was attending the birth of his daughter.

Ian Blackwell’s pyrotechnics take him to fourth. The Somerset all-rounder took 10 wickets in his last two championship outings and smashed 158 against Surrey at Whitgift School.

Northamptonshire captain Nicky Boje continues to lead by example and is fifth, overtaking Kent all-rounder Ryan McLaren.

Resurgent England fast bowler Steve Harmison is the big mover up to seventh spot, claiming 15 wickets in his last two championship matches, including a hat-trick against Sussex at Hove, eight wickets and 36 not out against Hampshire at Chester-le-Street.

Yasir Arafat’s consistent performances keep him eighth, while Samit Patel rises to ninth courtesy of his heroic Friends Provident Trophy showing for Nottinghamshire, smashing 114 out of 188 and chipping in with wickets in all competitions.

Sussex wicketkeeper-batsman Matt Prior rounds out the top 10, while the big casualty is Surrey skipper Mark Butcher.