Northamptonshire off-spinner Rob Keogh rounded off a memorable week by earning 45  points in the Professional Cricketers’ Association Most Valuable Player Rankings for returning career-best bowling figures in the Specsavers County Championship win over Glamorgan at Wantage Road.

Until Wednesday had taken only 36 first-class wickets in 44 matches but he took nine for 52 – Northamptonshire’s best figures against Glamorgan – in the first innings and followed up with four more wickets in the second.

Keogh’s match figures of 13 for 125 were Northamptonshire’s best in 40 years and, with slow left-armer Graeme White, taking the other seven wickets, the spin twins set up a crushing 318 runs win.

Keogh earned 29 PCA MVP points for his first innings bowling  - three of his wickets were in the top four - and 10 more for his four second inning wickets. He also collected four rankings points for scoring 40 in Northamptonshire’s second innings 305 for seven declared.

Batsman Ben Duckett remains Northamptonshire’s highest-ranked player in the overall PCA MVP in 11^th position with 396 points, 96 behind Warwickshire’s Jeetan Patel, the leader.

Duckett is also Northamptonshire’s leading player in the Specsavers County Championship PCA MVP in 44^th place with 177 points.

The PCA MVP was introduced in 2007 and is designed by the players to find the cricketers who really win matches by combining all aspects of a player’s performance to give a ranking in relation to his peers.

The MVP formula gives full credit to those players whose performances improve their team’s chances of winning.  Points are accrued for all runs scored and wickets taken; these are then adjusted within the context of the match to take into account strike rates and economy rates. 

Runs gain more points if they are scored quickly or in low-scoring contests.  Top order wickets taken at the start of the innings are judged more valuable than those that fall later, and bowlers who bowl their overs cheaply (in the context of the match) are given due reward for doing so.  

The weightings in the revised formula have been scaled so as to provide continuity with previous seasons, ensuring that the value of an MVP point this year is equivalent to those allocated under previous formulae.

The PCA MVP leader board can be viewed here: http://www.thepca.co.uk/county-mvp.html