Most valuable players in the India-Pakistan series

Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji's MVPI formula shows Pakistan’s bowlers and opening batsmen won the recently-concluded series for them.

Even though the record books show a 2-1 series win for Pakistan, there is little doubt that Misbah-ul- Haq’s team dominated the recently-concluded ODI series.

This becomes evident when we look at the most valuable player index (MVPI) table. The first four places have all been bagged by Pakistani cricketers. India [ Images ]’s most valuable performer, M S Dhoni [ Images ] is placed fifth.

The MVPI formula picks out batsmen who score a lot of runs at a high strike rate and bowlers who take a lot of wickets at a low economy rate, and expresses a player’s overall batting + bowling + fielding performance in terms of a ‘run equivalent’. 

Mohammed Hafeez, for example, has a MVPI of 237; this means that Hafeez scored 237 ‘runs’ in the series if his batting + bowling + fielding performance is expressed only in terms of ‘runs’ (the break-up is 106 for batting, 126 for bowling and 5 for fielding).

Table 1 lists the MVPI of all the players who played in the ODI series. The table clearly shows that Pakistan’s bowlers and opening batsmen won the series for them.

Table 1: Most valuable players in the India-Pakistan series (Dec 30, 2012 – Jan 6, 2013) 

Runs (scored) | Top score | Strike rate | W: Wickets taken | Eco: Economy rate | | M: Matches played | 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.

The next table shows India’s most valuable players in the 8 matches played so far in India’s 2012-13 season. Virat Kohli loses his top place after his shockingly poor performance against Pakistan. Also it is clear that India sorely missed the injured Irfan Pathan [ Images ]. Finally note that Sehwag’s performance isn’t as bad as the selectors seem to think.

Table 2: India’s most valuable players in the 2012-13 ODI season (8 matches so far) 

Runs (scored) | Sixes | Fours | Strike rate | Bat-pts: Batting points | W: Wickets taken | Eco: Economy rate | Bowl-pts: Bowling points | Field-pts: fielding points | M: Matches played | 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.