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Tendulkar just ahead of Yuvraj Singh

Last updated on: November 19, 2007 20:29 IST

Sachin Tendulkar is just a whisker ahead of Yuvraj Singh 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)

Player Runs Balls Bat-pts Rc Bb W Bowl-pts Ct|St Run outs Field-pts M Total
Sachin Tendulkar 1115 1352 1148 247 234 5 60.2 5 0.5 37 23 1245.6
Yuvraj Singh 931 1114 970.8 465 471 11 175.8 7 2.5 95 26 1241.6
Mahendra Singh Dhoni 677 840 682 0 0 0 0 19|11 4.5 313 24 995
Sourav Ganguly 611 850 542 300 348 5 98.4 1 1 29 20 669.4
Zaheer Khan 148 208 129.6 1000 1160 22 456 2 2.5 70 22 655.6
R P Singh 26 55 8 788 885 24 496 2 2 58 18 562
Rahul Dravid 462 554 480.8 0 0 0 0 10 0.5 62 20 542.8
Goutam Gambhir 563 757 520.4 0 0 0 0 2 0 10 18 530.4
Robin Uthappa 322 309 396.8 0 0 0 0 5 2 73 14 469.8
Piyush Chawla 20 34 12.8 538 666 17 402.8 8 0.5 52 13 467.6
Irfan Pathan 131 176 121.2 552 611 12 224.8 3 0 15 12 361
Harbhajan Singh 101 119 106.8 439 564 7 180.2 5 0 25 10 312
Sreesanth 18 53 -6.4 360 366 15 292.8 3 0 15 7 301.4
Ramesh Powar 46 78 29.6 528 668 10 246.4 2 0 10 13 286
Murali Kartik 37 48 35.6 300 377 10 241.6 0 0 0 7 277.2
Dinesh Karthik 180 217 186.4 0 0 0 0 12 0.5 82 13 268.4
Ajit Agarkar 19 38 7.6 415 414 12 204.2 2 0.5 22 8 233.8
Virender Sehwag 129 140 146 83 84 1 8.2 2 0 10 5 164.2
Munaf Patel 1 3 -0.4 208 216 6 108.8 1 0 5 5 113.4
Dinesh Mongia 34 41 35.2 106 108 3 52.4 0 0 0 2 87.6
Rohit Sharma 61 74 62.8 3 6 0 1.8 3 0 15 4 79.6
Praveen Kumar 12 13 13.6 50 60 0 -2 0 0 0 1 11.6
Ishant Sharma 0 0 0 38 42 0 -4.4 0 0 0 1 -4.4

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 Limited, Bangalore.