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Most Valuable Players in the SA ODI series

February 19, 2018 09:30 IST

Virat Kohli says he doesn't want any tags attached to his name and performances. We'll respect his request -- we'll only attach numbers!
Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji list the Most Valuable Players in the South Africa-India series.

Kuldeep Yadav, left, and Yuzvendra Chahal
IMAGE: Spin Twins Kuldeep Yadav, left, and Yuzvendra Chahal played a leading hand in India's resounding ODI series win in South Africa. Photograph: BCCI.

Virat Kohli says he doesn't want any tags attached to his name and performances. We'll respect his request -- we'll only attach numbers!

The numbers are breathtaking.

Kohli's series tally of 558 is a world record, and with his higher-than-par strike rate of 100, his total contribution to the team (measured by the Most Valuable Player Index or MVPI) is an equivalent of 679 'runs'.

And we aren't even factoring his contributions as captain!

The Most Valuable Player Index (MVPI) picks out batsmen who score a lot of runs at a high strike rate, bowlers who take a lot of wickets at a low economy rate, and fielders who take the most catches or participate in run outs.

MVPI expresses a player's overall batting + bowling + fielding performance in terms of a 'run equivalent'.

India didn't just win 5 out of the 6 ODI matches; they won them big!

That's why the top seven players in the MVPI table are all Indians.

The top ranking South African, Lungi Ngidi, is placed 8th and his MVPI is just 179 -- which is 500 'runs' less than Kohli.

Not surprisingly, India's wrist spinning twins Kuldeep Yadav and Yujvendra Chahal (we quite like the name 'KulCha') are second and third on the table with MVPIs of 445 and 404, although they were practically required to score no real runs.

 

Table 1 lists the Most Valuable Players of the series.

Table 1: Most Valuable Players in the South Africa-India ODI series

 

RankPlayerTeamRunsTop Score4s6sStrike RateWicketsEconomy RateMatchesMVPI
1 Virat Kohli INDIA 558 160 54 6 100 0 - 6 679
2 Kuldeep Yadav INDIA 2 2 0 0 50 17 4.6 6 445
3 Yujvendra Chahal INDIA 0 0 0 0 - 16 5 6 404
4 Shikhar Dhawan INDIA 323 109 47 2 104 0 - 6 393
5 Jasprit Bumrah INDIA 0 0 0 0 - 8 4 6 248
6 Hardik Pandya INDIA 26 14 1 1 74 4 4.9 6 182
7 Rohit Sharma INDIA 170 115 19 6 83 0 - 6 179
8 Lungi Ngidi SA 10 6 2 0 111 8 6.2 4 179
9 Heinrich Klaasen SA 110 43 11 3 91 0 - 4 167
10 Andile Phehlukwayo SA 87 34 4 6 96 3 5.7 5 160
11 Aiden Markram SA 127 32 13 3 80 0 10 6 152
12 Faf du Plessis SA 120 120 11 2 107 0 - 1 147
13 Jean-Paul Duminy SA 99 51 7 0 69 2 6.3 5 141
14 Hashim Amla SA 154 71 16 0 76 0 - 6 140
15 Ajinkya Rahane INDIA 140 79 9 2 77 0 - 6 133
16 Kagiso Rabada SA 17 12 1 1 57 5 5.6 5 125
17 Chris Morris SA 69 37 6 2 97 2 6 5 112
18 M S Dhoni INDIA 69 42 5 1 81 0 - 6 110
19 David Miller SA 107 39 8 3 81 0 - 5 109
20 Shardul Thakur INDIA 0 0 0 0 - 4 5.9 1 97
21 Bhuvneshwar Kumar INDIA 40 19 3 0 87 2 6.1 5 83
22 A B de Villiers SA 62 30 5 2 105 0 - 3 80
23 Morne Morkel SA 22 20 0 2 85 2 5.4 5 74
24 Khaya Zondo SA 96 54 5 2 61 0 - 3 66
25 Shreyas Iyer INDIA 48 30 4 0 83 0 - 3 58
26 Quinton de Kock SA 54 34 6 0 64 0 - 2 42
27 Imran Tahir SA 10 8 2 0 48 1 5.5 4 16
28 Manish Pandey INDIA 0 0 0 0 - 0 - 0 5
29 Kedar Jadhav INDIA 1 1 0 0 33 0 5 3 -1
30 Farhaan Behardien SA 1 1 0 0 20 0 - 1 -2
31 Tabraiz Shamsi SA 0 0 0 0 0 0 5.1 2 -3

MVPI: Most Valuable Player Index = 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.

If we look at the entire 2017-2018 ODI season, Kohli is still colossal with a MVPI of 2237.

The table also suggests that India's top nine players in the playing eleven easily select themselves with MVPIs of 950 or more.

Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji