Photo Credit: Professional Cricketers’ Association
Southern Vipers captain wins award sponsored by Vitality, taking home a trophy and £2,500 prize.
Georgia Adams has won the 2023 Charlotte Edwards Cup Player of the Year, sponsored by Vitality after leading her team to lift the trophy named after her head coach for the second successive year.
The Southern Vipers all-rounder has been one of the standout performers since domestic women’s cricket was professionalised and she finished third in the run scoring charts with 249 and secured 10 wickets, including four across the eliminator and final.
Adams expertly led her team across a rain affected Finals Day at New Road, Worcester. The Vipers beat Thunder in the knockout fixture by 18 runs and then defeated the previously unbeaten Blaze by seven wickets in the final.
The Player of the Year is selected by the PCA Most Valuable Player Rankings, with the Vipers captain peaking at the business end of the competition to win the award, sponsored by Vitality. The formula enables players to score or lose MVP points on every ball based on their expected performance for that ball in comparison to CricViz’s extensive historical database of 20-over fixtures, with the venue being played at also taken into account.
Georgia Adams wins £2,500 and a trophy and now completes the set of MVP awards in regional cricket, having won the PCA Women’s Domestic Overall MVP in 2022 and the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy MVP in 2020.
The 29-year-old finished the competition as statistically the number one player, ending with 154.59 MVP points. Knowing they had to win their final two group games, Adams scored an unbeaten 105 across those games, beating Northern Diamonds and Sunrisers, where she received the Match MVP, before starring with the ball in Worcester.
Speaking after receiving her Charlotte Edwards Cup Player of the Year trophy, sponsored by Vitality, Adams said:
“These girls make it easy for me as I come on and burgle a few wickets after the hard work has been done. Then with the bat, the way Danni (Wyatt) and Maia (Bouchier) play at the top makes it easy for us in the middle too.
“I’m incredibly proud of my teammates, what we’ve done well is adapted and people have had to adjust coming in and out of the squad throughout and stepping up in different roles, that’s what we’ve done so well and we’ve stuck together as a side throughout.”
South East Stars captain Bryony Smith pushed Adams all the way, leading the MVP for the latter stages of the competition and the stats show why. Despite not guiding her side to Finals Day, she was the top run scorer in the competition with 256 to her name until Danni Wyatt hit 126 across the eliminator game and the final.
Smith also possessed the second highest strike-rate, behind Nat Sciver-Brunt with 155.15 runs per 100 balls. The England international also took five wickets and ended the campaign with an impressive 145.90 MVP points at an average of 20.84 per game.
The Blaze made it straight through to the final, winning all seven of their games with Tammy Beaumont and Nat Sciver-Brunt their standout performers according to MVP going into the cup final.
Southern Vipers won five group games while Thunder won four with both competing in the semi-final and both had players scoring highly in the Rankings beyond the winner, Adams.
Wyatt was the Match MVP in the eliminator and final, starring with 34.06 MVP points thanks to her 76 runs off 50 balls as she entered the top 10 against Thunder. The England opener was then in a hurry in the final, blasting 50 off 27 balls to win the Match MVP as she finished in fourth position in the Charlotte Edwards Cup MVP.
The Ageas Bowl-based outfit also had to thank Linsey Smith and Anya Shrubsole who were statistically the best two bowlers according to the MVP formula throughout the competition.
Thunder had strong representation with Fi Morris ending with 134.54 points and Emma Lamb also making the top 10 in eighth spot with 102.80 points. Elsewhere, Central Spark’s Australian Erin Burns was fifth and Western Storm’s Danielle Gibson ending in sixth place.
The Overall MVP table is very tight, with Adams claiming a narrow lead over Smith with Burns, Paige Scholfield and Lamb completing the top five. A break in domestic cricket now follows until the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy resumes on 2 July as the race for the Overall MVP and the £7,500 prize continues.
View the women’s domestic MVP Rankings.
