PCA award winners

Patel and Sciver named players of the year

ESPNcricinfo staff, 4:57 PM MT. October 04, 2017, http://www.espncricinfo.com/st...r-named-players-year

Samit Patel and Nat Sciver have been recognised by their peers with respective Player of the Year titles at the Professional Cricketers' Association awards night.

Patel, the Nottinghamshire allrounder, won the Reg Hayter Cup after being voted the PCA Players' Player of the Year, following his starring role in Nottinghamshire's impressive season where they won both white-ball competitions - the Royal London Cup and NatWest T20 Blast - and secured promotion in the County Championship.

Patel topped the voting ahead of Kumar Sangakkara, who signed off his first-class career by averaging over 100 in the Championship for Yorkshire, Essex's Jamie Porter, the leading wicket-taker of the season, and Glamorgan's Colin Ingram who made over 1000 runs in white-ball cricket.

He was Nottinghamshire's leading run-scorer in the Championship with 906 at 53.29 and also claimed 19 wickets. He also topped the county's run chart in the Royal London Cup - and was fourth overall - with 539 at 67.37 then added 405 runs and 16 wickets in the T20 Blast. His success has been enough to have him floated as a possible replacement for Ben Stokes should the latter be withdrawn from the Ashes.

"It's a great honour to be voted by your peers. It's a great feeling and it demonstrates how well we have done as a team and individually this season," Patel said. "I'm a little bit surprised actually. To be up there with a world-class player like Sanga, with the amount of runs that he scored in a short amount of time, is a privilege in itself."

Allrounder Sciver, part of the World Cup-winning side, was named England's Player of the Summer ahead of Tammy Beaumont and Alex Hartley. Sciver scored 369 runs at 46.12 and took seven wickets to help England secure the title and, during the tournament, had a shot named after her.

The 'Nat-Meg' was unveiled, at least to a wider audience, during her 129 off 111 balls against New Zealand when Sciver deliberately deflected a leg-stump yorker through her legs for two runs. Earlier in the tournament she had scored a career-best 137 against Pakistan which included England's fastest World Cup century off 76 balls.

In the final against India, played at a sold-out Lord's, Sciver held England's middle order together with 51 off 68 balls to help them to 228 for 7, which ultimately proved just enough thanks to Anya Shrubsole's inspired spell.

"Nothing can take away from that day at Lord's and just being there with the whole team and the girls who didn't quite make the 15 so we were there as a squad," Sciver said. "This caps off a brilliant year for us and hopefully we can produce a few more brilliant years. To be voted by my peers is a really nice feeling.

"There are a few other players who could have been nominated as well. It was a performance by the full 15 in the squad, so I am very lucky.

In the other awards, Porter picked up two prizes - the Young Player of the Year and the County Championship award for his 75 wickets at 16.82 in Essex's unbeaten campaign. His success has earned him a place on the England Lions tour of Australia next month.

The England Test and one-day awards went to James Anderson and Joe Root respectively, Ingram was named the Royal London Cup Player of the Year and Wayne Madsen took the same title for the NatWest t20 Blast.

In the PCA's 50th year - the organisation's first meeting was on September 4, 1967 in London - they gave a lifetime achievement award to the founder Fred Rumsey.

"In our 50th Anniversary year it is only fitting that our Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to one of our founding members, Fred Rumsey," David Leatherdale, the PCA chief executive said. "His courage and determination some 50 years ago has enabled the PCA to become the respected organisation it is today."

PCA team of the year Alex Hales(Nottinghamshire), Mark Stoneman (Surrey), Colin Ingram (Glamorgan), Kumar Sangakkara (Surrey), Samit Patel (Nottinghamshire), Darren Stevens (Kent), Ben Cox (Worcestershire), Kyle Abbott (Hampshire), Craig Overton (Somerset), Simon Harmer (Essex), Jamie Porter (Essex)