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Nathan Bracken is still MVP

March 03, 2008 17:49 IST

As the long and arduous Commonwealth Bank Series nears its end, Nathan Bracken leads the list of the most valuable players (MVP). Bracken has taken the largest number of wickets, and at an excellent economy rate.

Gautam Gambhir is India's highest ranked player on the list, and could well have been at the top if he hadn't been needlessly run out in the first final at Sydney.

Australia's James Hopes is surprisingly fourth in the list with a consistent all-round display.

The most likely winner of the MVP crown, and the overwhelming favourite for the "man of the series" award, is however Adam Gilchrist. A look at Table 1 indicates that Gilchrist and Mahendra Singh Dhoni have very similar totals; only Gilchrist has scored his runs at a much faster rate.

Table 1: The most valuable players in the Commonwealth Bank series (13 matches so far)

Rank Player Country Runs Balls batpts Rc Bb W bwlpts Ct|St Run Outs fldpts M Total
1 Nathan Bracken Aus 16 43 -2.4 316 461 18 484.8 1 0 5 9 487
2 Adam Gilchrist Aus 320 325 380 0 0 0 0 16|2 0 100 9 480
3 Gautam Gambhir Ind 425 516 437.2 0 0 0 0 1 0 5 9 442
4 James Hopes Aus 130 162 130.4 198 335 8 262 2 1.5 46 8 438
5 Brett Lee Aus 66 112 42.4 298 370 15 358 2 0.5 22 7 422
6 Mahendra Singh Dhoni Ind 311 432 276.4 0 0 0 0 16|2 1 124 9 400
7 KC Sangakkara SL 326 447 294.4 0 0 0 0 6|2 1 74 8 368
8 Mitchel Johnson Aus 27 47 16.4 278 426 11 326.8 1 0.5 17 8 360
9 Ishant Sharma Ind 5 17 -3.6 285 373 14 349.4 2 0 10 9 356
10 Sachin Tendulkar Ind 308 347 338.4 21 24 0 -1.8 2 0 10 9 347
11 Harbhajan Singh Ind 54 42 74.4 233 331 7 199.8 1 2.5 65 9 339
12 Brad Hogg Aus 85 132 64.4 236 327 8 217.6 0 0 0 7 282
13 Rohit Sharma Ind 233 306 221.2 5 6 0 -0.2 5 1.5 61 9 282
14 Irfan Pathan Ind 106 162 82.4 323 360 9 181 1 0.5 17 9 280
15 Michael Clarke Aus 297 424 254.8 78 96 0 -1.2 3 0 15 9 269
16 SL Malinga SL 19 65 -14 368 430 12 264 1 0.5 17 8 267
17 Mathew Hayden Aus 243 320 230 0 0 0 0 2 1 34 7 264
18 M Muralitharan SL 25 43 15.6 353 440 9 215 3 0 15 8 246
19 MKDI Amerasinghe SL 16 20 16 276 342 9 213.6 1 0 5 7 235
20 Michael Hussey Aus 234 350 188 0 0 0 0 6 0.5 42 9 230
21 TM Dilshan SL 159 169 182.8 19 12 0 -9.4 4 1.5 56 7 229
22 DPMD Jayawardene SL 214 297 190.4 0 0 0 0 7 0 35 8 225
23 Ricky Ponting Aus 190 261 171.2 0 0 0 0 4 1 44 9 215
24 Stuart Clark Aus 31 41 29.2 119 216 5 173.8 1 0 5 4 208
25 Yuvraj Singh Ind 164 201 167.2 105 138 1 29.4 1 0 5 8 202
26 Praveen Kumar Ind 6 8 5.6 129 180 6 159 2 1 34 3 199
27 Andrew Symonds Aus 132 170 128 32 35 0 -4 4 1 44 9 168
28 WPUJC Vaas SL 19 39 6.8 270 372 5 147.6 0 0 0 7 154
29 ST Jayasuriya SL 103 116 113.2 42 37 1 11.6 1 1 29 8 154
30 S Sreesanth Ind 8 11 7.2 189 188 7 129.4 0 0 0 6 137
31 KMDN Kulasekara SL 14 29 4.8 129 156 5 115.8 1 0 5 3 126
32 Virender Sehwag Ind 81 103 79.6 66 78 1 20.4 1 0.5 17 5 117
33 MF Maharoof SL 10 20 4 152 187 4 93.6 1 0.5 17 4 115
34 Robin Uthappa Ind 112 165 92 0 0 0 0 4 0 20 9 112
35 CK Kapugedera SL 86 176 31.2 101 132 2 52.6 2 0.5 22 7 106
36 Munaf Patel Ind 0 9 -7.2 120 162 2 57.6 0 1 24 3 74
37 LPC Silva SL 79 171 21.2 0 0 0 0 3 0 15 8 36
38 Dilruwan Perera SL 14 36 -0.8 28 42 1 29.6 0 0 0 3 29
39 Ashley Noffke Aus 0 0 0 46 54 1 21.2 0 0 0 1 21
40 Piyush Chawla Ind 0 0 0 33 60 0 15 1 0 5 1 20
41 WU Tharanga SL 10 18 5.6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 5.6
42 Brad Haddin Aus 12 44 -11.2 0 0 0 0 1 0 5 3 -6.2
43 Manoj Tiwari Ind 2 16 -8.8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 -8.8
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.

After his match-winning century, Sachin Tendulkar is almost certain to be India's most valuable player of the 2007-08 ODI season; at most a couple of games remain before the season draws to a close and even Yuvraj Singh in his best form would have found it hard to overtake the peerless batting master.

Table 2: India's most valuable players of the 2007-08 season (35 matches so far)

Rank Player Runs Balls batpts Rc Bb W bwlpts Ct|St Run Outs fldpts M Total
1 Sachin Tendulkar 1423 1699 1487 268 258 5 58.4 7 0.5 47 32 1592
2 Yuvraj Singh 1095 1315 1138 570 609 12 205.2 8 2.5 100 34 1443
3 Mahendra Singh Dhoni 988 1272 958 0 0 0 0 35|13 5.5 437 33 1395
4 Gautam Gambhir 988 1273 958 0 0 0 0 3 0 15 27 973
5 Sourav Ganguly 611 850 542 300 348 5 98.4 1 1 29 20 669
6 Zaheer Khan 148 208 130 1000 1160 22 456 2 2.5 70 22 656
7 Harbhajan Singh 155 161 181 672 895 14 380 6 2.5 90 19 651
8 Irfan Pathan 237 338 204 875 971 21 405.8 4 0.5 32 21 641
9 Robin Uthappa 434 474 489 0 0 0 0 9 2 93 23 582
10 R P Singh 26 55 8 788 885 24 496 2 2 58 18 562
11 Rahul Dravid 462 554 481 0 0 0 0 10 0.5 62 20 543
12 Piyush Chawla 20 34 12.8 571 726 17 417.8 9 0.5 57 14 488
13 S Sreesanth 26 64 0.8 549 554 22 422.2 3 0 15 13 438
14 Rohit Sharma 294 380 284 8 12 0 1.6 8 1.5 76 13 362
15 Ishant Sharma 5 17 -3.6 323 415 14 345 2 0 10 10 351
16 Ramesh Powar 46 78 29.6 528 668 10 246.4 2 0 10 13 286
17 Virender Sehwag 210 243 226 149 162 2 28.6 3 0.5 27 10 281
18 Murali Kartik 37 48 35.6 300 377 10 241.6 0 0 0 7 277
19 Dinesh Karthik 180 217 186 0 0 0 0 12|1 0.5 82 13 268
20 Ajit Agarkar 19 38 7.6 415 414 12 204.2 2 0.5 22 8 234
21 Praveen Kumar 18 21 19.2 179 240 6 157 2 1 34 4 210
22 Munaf Patel 1 12 -7.6 328 378 8 166.4 1 1 29 8 188
23 Dinesh Mongia 34 41 35.2 106 108 3 52.4 0 0 0 2 87.6
24 Manoj Tiwari 2 16 -8.8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 -8.8
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 and Debasish Ghosh work for Cranes Software International Limited, Bangalore.

Srinivas Bhogle and Debasish Ghosh