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K L Rahul is still MVPI

October 14, 2020 12:54 IST

Purnendu Maji and Srinivas Bhogle list IPL 2020's 50 Most Valuable Players up to Match 25.

KL Rahul

IMAGE: Kings XI Punjab Captain K L Rahul celebrates a century against the Royal Challengers Bangalore.
He recorded the highest-ever score by an Indian batsman in IPL history.
He also recorded the highest score ever by a captain in the IPL, and broke Sachin Tendulkar's eight-year record to become the fastest Indian to 2,000 IPL runs, achieving the feat in 60 innings compared to the legend's 63 innings. Photograph: BCCI/IPL

It's a funny kind of IPL for K L Rahul, and indeed also for his opening partner Mayank Agarwal.

They have been the most prolific scorers -- both have centuries, and decent strike rates, and currently top the MVPI rankings.

But their team, Kings XI Punjab, faces a real risk of being bottom of the table.

Rahul has a MVPI of 370, with Mayank just behind at 368.

Here's a quick recap of how we calculate the MVPI.

The average team score in this IPL is 180 (actually, 184, after the 25th game).

So, the par strike rate is 9 runs per over, or 150.

This means that a batsman is expected to score 1.5 runs per ball faced.

What if he scores less than 1.5 runs per ball? Then he hurts the team's cause.

On the other hand, if the batsman scores more than 1.5 runs per ball, then he helps the team's cause.

We use this information to build a reward-penalty run model.

Rahul has scored 387 runs so far, but used 287 balls for a strike rate of 134.8.

Because of the lower strike rate, Rahul's 387 runs is valued to be only like 343.5 'runs'.

Mayank scored 337 runs at a strike rate of 159, which is better than par.

So, his 'run equivalent' is effectively 356.

This is the 'batting performance' contribution to the MVPI.

KL Rahul

IMAGE: Kagiso Rabada of the Delhi Capitals. Photograph: Delhi Capitals/Twitter

For bowlers, the story plays out quite similarly.

Consider Kagiso Rabada of the Delhi Capitals.

He has 15 wickets so far.

With a par innings score of 180, we will argue that every wicket is worth 18 runs.

So Rabada has contributed a 'bowling performance' equivalent to 15*18 = 270 'runs'.

Better still, Rabada has conceded 185 runs in as many as 142 balls for an economy rate of 7.8, which is better than the par economy rate of 9.

So that rewards him an extra 28 'runs' for an overall 'bowling performance' equivalent to 298 'runs'.

If a bowler concedes more runs than the par economy rate, he is penalized and has runs subtracted for his bowling performance tally.

That's the general idea of THE MVPI.

A player's MVPI is the sum of his batting, bowling and fielding 'runs' (there are fielding 'runs' too; 18 runs if a batsman is run out by a direct hit).

Some readers must wonder why we openly reveal the formula to calculate the MVPI instead of pretending that it is some intelligent black box.

For two reasons: First, we want to reassure readers that MVPI is calculated based on valid cricketing arguments, and, second, because we are inveterate cricket romantics who find numbers as enticing as Brian Lara's cover drive (just seeing him mimic that cover drive in the Star Sports Dugout is more pleasing than anything that Rahul Tewatia might do on the actual cricket field).

To be fair, Tewatia is having an excellent IPL.

He is placed 7th with a MVPI of 276.

 

Table: IPL 2020: Best Performing Players so far (up to Match 25 ending 11.10.20)

RankPlayer's NameTeamFromRunsTop Score4s6sStrike RateWicketsEconomy RateMatchesMVPI
1 KL Rahul KXIP IND 387 132 37 10 134.8 0 - 7 370
2 Mayank Agarwal KXIP IND 337 106 34 12 159 0 - 7 368
3 Faf du Plessis CSK SA 307 87 29 8 147.6 0 - 7 334
4 Kagiso Rabada DC IND 17 15 1 1 170 15 7.8 6 333
5 Jofra Archer RR ENG 88 27 4 9 220 8 6.9 6 318
6 Nicholas Pooran KXIP WI 212 77 13 16 176.7 0 - 7 288
7 Rahul Tewatia RR IND 144 53 5 13 150 5 7.7 6 276
8 Marcus Stoinis DC AUS 162 53 15 9 176.1 5 9.5 6 274
9 Jonny Bairstow SRH ENG 241 97 17 11 138.5 0 - 6 273
10 Kieron Pollard MI WI 163 60 8 13 209 2 8.7 6 272
11 Rashid Khan SRH AFG 9 6 1 0 75 8 4.8 6 257
12 Sam Curran CSK ENG 68 18 3 7 219.4 8 8.8 7 254
13 Sanju Samson RR IND 176 85 7 16 179.6 0 - 6 233
14 Jasprit Bumrah MI IND 5 5 0 0 166.7 11 8.2 6 224
15 Mohammed Shami KXIP IND 2 2 0 0 66.7 10 8.4 7 223
16 Rohit Sharma MI IND 211 80 15 14 145.5 0 - 6 221
17 Trent Boult MI NZ 0 0 0 0 0 10 7.8 6 210
18 Prithvi Shaw DC IND 198 66 21 8 151.1 0 - 6 208
19 James Pattinson MI AUS 11 11 2 0 137.5 9 7.7 6 206
20 Axar Patel DC IND 28 17 2 1 121.7 5 4.5 5 205
23 Anrich Nortje DC SA 6 3 0 0 200 8 7.3 6 202
22 Shreyas Iyer DC IND 203 88 15 9 141 0 - 6 202
21 David Warner SRH AUS 227 60 19 6 124.7 0 - 6 202
25 Rishabh Pant DC IND 176 38 18 5 133.3 0 - 6 195
24 Virat Kohli RCB IND 223 90 13 7 128.9 0 - 6 195
26 Yuzvendra Chahal RCB IND 1 1 0 0 33.3 9 7.8 6 192
28 Suryakumar Yadav MI IND 180 79 27 3 152.5 0 - 6 191
27 AB de Villiers RCB IND 155 55 15 7 172.2 0 - 6 191
29 Devdutt Padikkal RCB IND 211 63 21 4 124.9 0 - 6 189
30 Ravi Bishnoi KXI IND 7 6 1 0 58.3 8 7.9 7 179
31 Shubman Gill KKR IND 220 70 19 4 117 0 - 6 174
32 Ravindra Jadeja CSK AUS 101 50 12 3 155.4 3 9 7 173
33 MS Dhoni CSK IND 112 47 7 5 131.8 0 - 7 171
34 Washington Sundar RCB IND 57 30 5 2 118.8 3 4.9 6 170
35 Shane Watson CSK AUS 199 83 23 9 125.2 0 - 7 168
36 Eoin Morgan KKR ENG 167 44 9 11 135.8 0 - 6 167
38 Quinton de Kock MI SA 138 67 13 5 142.3 0 - 6 163
37 Hardik Pandya MI IND 135 30 9 9 158.8 0 - 6 163
39 T Natarajan SRH IND 3 3 0 0 75 7 8 6 158
40 Andre Russell KKR WI 55 24 4 4 137.5 5 8 6 154
43 Pat Cummins KKR AUS 72 33 4 5 184.6 2 8.4 6 153
42 Rahul Chahar MI IND 2 2 0 0 50 7 8 6 153
41 Steven Smith RR AUS 157 69 15 7 142.7 0 - 6 153
44 Shivam Dube RCB IND 79 27 3 6 141.1 4 8.3 6 152
45 Sunil Narine KKR WI 44 17 3 3 110 5 8.1 6 151
46 Ishan Kishan MI IND 158 99 4 12 138.6 0 - 4 149
47 Deepak Chahar CSK IND 5 5 0 0 100 6 7.9 7 147
48 Nitish Rana KKR IND 141 58 15 6 145.4 0 7 6 143
49 Jos Buttler RR ENG 130 70 10 8 149.4 0 - 5 142
50 Shardul Thakur CSK IND 1 1 0 0 100 7 8.7 4 136

PURNENDU MAJI, SRINIVAS BHOGLE