Northamptonshire seamer Nathan Buck has climbed to 13^th in the Specsavers County Championship Professional Cricketers’ Association Most Valuable Player Rankings.

Buck, who joined Northamptonshire from Lancashire during the winter, took a career-best six for 34 to help set up a tense two wickets win over Durham at Chester-le-Street.

Buck earned 22 rankings points for that performance and ended a productive match with a season’s best haul of 25 to take him to 104 points in the championship.

Buck has taken three five wicket hauls in five championship appearances for Northamptonshire having previously achieved the feat only four times in 59 matches, all of them for Leicestershire.

The PCA MVP Rankings system identifies the match-winners and key influencers of matches throughout the domestic season.

The formula takes into account conditions, quality of opposition, captaincy and strike-rates as well as runs scored and wickets taken.

Rory Kleinveldt is Northamptonshire’s next highest-placed player in the championship rankings in 32^nd place on 82 points with Ben Sanderson 64^th on 62 points.

In the overall PCA MVP Rankings Buck is also Northamptonshire’s highest-placed player in 63^rd position with 113 points across all formats.

Sanderson is only six places further back with opening batsman Richard Levi in 76^th place, Kleinveldt 94^th and Northamptonshire captain Alex Wakely 99^th with 90 points.

Wakely helped to steer Northamptonshire to victory at Durham with 84 in the second innings, his highest championship score of the season, which made up 41 per cent of his side’s total. Wakely’s efforts earned him 19 MVP points towards his match haul of 22 points.

Seamer Mohammad Azharullah took  five for 72 in Durham’s second innings in only his second championship appearance of the season and finished with a match haul of 18 rankings points.

The latest PCA MVP Rankings can be viewed here