Sachin Tendulkar [Images] is just a whisker ahead of Yuvraj Singh [Images] in the race to be India's most valuable player (MVP) of the 2007-08 ODI season. The battle between India's two best ODI players will resume when the India-Australia-Sri Lanka triangular series starts in February 2008.

Table 1: India's most valuable players of the 2007-08 season (26 matches so far)

Runs (scored) | Balls (taken) | Bat-pts: Batting points | | Rc: Runs conceded | Bb: Balls bowled | W: Wickets taken | Bowl-pts: Bowling points | Ct/St: Catches taken / Stumpings | Run outs (participated) | Field-pts: fielding points | M: Matches played | Total (points) = sum of batting, bowling and fielding points | *Run outs are counted as 1 (wicket) for a direct hit, and 0.5 (wicket) if the fielder is an equal participant in a run out dismissal.

Some readers have asked if it isn't better to look at the average points per match, instead of the total points. The average points can sometimes give awkward results, especially if the players have played only a handful of matches. India's five most valuable players based on average points would be: Sachin Tendulkar (54.2) | Yuvraj Singh (47.8) | Dinesh Mongia (43.8) | S Sreesanth (43.1) | M S Dhoni (41.5).

The next table lists the most valuable players of the recently-concluded India-Pakistan ODI series.

Table 2: The most valuable players so far in the India-Pakistan series (5 matches)

Rank	Player	Runs	Balls	Bat-pts	Rc	Bb	W	Bowl-pts	Ct|St	Run outs	Field-pts	M	Total
1	Yuvraj Singh	272	345	268	77	96	3	71.8	2	1.5	46	5	385.8
2	Sachin Tendulkar	259	254	314.8	54	42	2	27.6	0	0	0	5	342.4
3	Mohammad Yousuf [Images]	283	323	307.6	0	0	0	0	1	0	5	5	312.6
4	Mahendra Singh Dhoni	185	216	197.2	0	0	0	0	1|4	2	93	5	290.2
5	Salman Butt [Images]	252	300	264	16	9	0	-8.8	0	0.5	12	5	267.2
6	Younis Khan	231	278	239.6	0	0	0	0	1	0	5	4	244.6
7	Sohail Tanvir	23	17	32.4	178	221	8	190.8	2	0	10	4	233.2
8	Misbah-ul-Haq	176	173	213.6	0	0	0	0	3	0	15	5	228.6
9	Shoaib Malik [Images]	159	205	154	141	138	3	41.4	0	1	24	5	219.4
10	Harbhajan Singh	48	30	72	178	240	4	110	2	0	10	4	192
11	Irfan Pathan	72	68	89.6	270	287	5	79.6	2	0	10	5	179.2
12	Shoaib Akhtar [Images]	1	2	0.4	183	228	7	167.4	0	0	0	4	167.8
13	Goutam Gambhir	141	196	125.2	0	0	0	0	1	0	5	5	130.2
14	R P Singh	1	1	1.2	216	216	6	100.8	0	0.5	12	4	114
15	Shahid Afridi [Images]	73	57	100.4	223	222	2	2.6	2	0	10	4	113
16	Zaheer Khan	9	18	3.6	185	218	5	109.4	0	0	0	4	113
17	Umar Gul	2	2	2.4	243	270	5	93	1	0	5	5	100.4
18	Sourav Ganguly	89	109	90.8	84	84	1	7.2	0	0	0	4	98
19	Sreesanth	10	16	7.2	52	60	3	68	1	0	5	1	80.2
20	Virender Sehwag	78	93	81.6	37	36	0	-8.2	0	0	0	3	73.4
21	Kamran Akmal	29	54	14.8	0	0	0	0	4|0	1.5	56	4	70.8
22	Murali Kartik	16	10	24	136	156	2	36.8	0	0	0	3	60.8
23	Rohit Sharma	52	61	55.2	0	0	0	0	1	0	5	1	60.2
24	Abdur Rehman	2	6	-0.8	112	102	3	41.6	0	0	0	2	40.8
25	Iftikhar Anjum	0	0	0	201	210	3	39	0	0	0	4	39
26	Fawad Alam	32	23	45.6	56	60	0	-8	0	0	0	1	37.6
27	Robin Uthappa	31	40	30	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5	30
28	Imran Nazir [Images]	20	40	8	0	0	0	0	2	0	10	1	18
29	Praveen Kumar	12	13	13.6	50	60	0	-2	0	0	0	1	11.6
30	Sarfraz Ahmed(WK)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2|0	0	10	1	10
31	Yasir Hameed [Images]	1	5	-2	0	0	0	0	1	0	5	1	3

Runs (scored) | Balls (taken) | Bat-pts: Batting points | | Rc: Runs conceded | Bb: Balls bowled | W: Wickets taken | Bowl-pts: Bowling points | Ct/St: Catches taken / Stumpings | Run outs (participated) | Field-pts: fielding points | M: Matches played | Total (points) = sum of batting, bowling and fielding points | *Run outs are counted as 1 (wicket) for a direct hit, and 0.5 (wicket) if the fielder is an equal participant in a run out dismissal.

Srinivas Bhogle, Debasish Ghosh and K Anil Kumar work for Cranes Software International [Get Quote] Limited, Bangalore.