Player of the Match in the tournament-that-shall-not-be-named

The Player of the Match award tends to go to the top scoring batter of the winning team. The Women’s tournament-that-shall-not-be-named* bucks this trend.

Here’s the MOTM awards in the men’s tournament this year so far. Rather predictable, other than Chris Jordan rolling back the years: 8/11 wins for batters.

Yet if we look at the women’s section the split of POTM awards is more bowlers than batters: 4/11 wins for batters-

Small sample size, so I dredged through the scorecards of last year too: 14/26 wins for batters-

In aggregate, in the women’s section, that’s 18 POTM for the batters, eight for the bowlers, and 11 for all-round performances.

Many awards going to players who have contributed with bat and ball. Why might that be the case? If the average score is around 130, then there will often be no clear leading contributor with the bat. And if everyone takes 2-30 then no bowler stands out either (eg. Georgia Adams’ POTM for 18 runs & 2-16).

Any gamblers out there should look at all rounders batting up the order. Melie Kerr at 8/1 for the 12th August 2023 game, for example.

_{*Probably not helping my SEO, but who cares.}