Chris Gayle blasted a quickfire century to power West Indies to a comfortable six-wicket victory against Sri Lanka in the opening match of the tri-nation series in Jamaica, on Friday.
As Cheteshwar Pujara plays a landmark Test against Sri Lanka, Rajneesh Gupta salutes the batsman's career thus far in numbers...
The Indian team's batting woes continued as they lost their opening warm-up tie of the ICC World T20 against Sri Lanka by five runs in Dhaka on Monday.
As we write this we still await the crucial India-Australia knock-out in Mohali. But India's individual performances in the T20 World Cup so far haven't been truly impressive. A look at the most valuable player index (MVPI) table reveals that there's no Indian player in the top 20. MVPI merges a player's batting + bowling + fielding performance into a single 'run equivalent'. The formula to compute the MVP is devised to reward batsmen who score runs at a high strike rate, bowlers who take wickets at low economy rate and fielders who field the best (take a lot of catches and participate in run-outs). Since this is a relatively low scoring tournament we have assumed a team's par score to be 150, and each wicket to be worth 15 'runs'. It isn't a surprise that players from New Zealand dominate the rankings so far, although Joe Root tops the table after his 83 in 44 balls against South Africa.
India's T20 World Cup challenge has ended. But it is likely that Virat Kohli (MVPI of 338) will go on to become the tournament's most valuable player because he enjoys a lead of 109 runs over second-placed Joe Root (229).
How will young batsmen brought up on T20 learn to build an innings? What about the technique to patiently negotiate hostile seam bowling conditions or the skill to play on difficult dusty turners? What about leaving the swinging ball outside off stump?
Virat's 248 runs in the second Test, the highest by an Indian captain against England. Ashwin, only the second Indian bowler to take 50 wickets in consecutive years. Rajneesh Gupta looks at the numbers from the Vizag Test.
The International Cricket Council released the provisional squads of the 12 teams for next year's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand on Friday. However, co-hosts Australia and minnows Ireland decided against releasing the provisional list although they submitted 30 names to the parent body within the stipulated deadline.
India's batting sensation Virat Kohli, named player of the tournament, is also the most valuable player of World T20 2016. With a fifty and two wickets, England's Joe Root is just behind him.
Jimmy Anderson is the first Englishman to take 500 Test wickets.
In the ICC Player Rankings for Test bowlers, Australia's Ryan Harris has moved up two places to second following his six wickets against India in the fourth Test at MCG.
Virat Kohli was unquestionably the top player, but the most valuable player index (MVPI) suggests that Shakib Al Hasan had an equally good World T20 even though his team Bangladesh fared poorly.
Sri Lanka, who won the last edition of the World T20 in 2014, have 21 wins from 31 matches in the six editions of the tournament, while India have 17 victories from 28 games. Check out the records of the previous five editions of the World T20.
As the top 10 teams prepare to battle for the World T20 crown, Rajneesh Gupta breaks down each squad's T20 performance and their showing in previous editions of the event.
Strangely, despite four wins on the trot, none of India's players have even figured in the top 20 of the MVPI table.
The West Indian has blasted his way to the top of Rediff.com's Most Valuable Players ratings for the World Cup with the South African skipper close on his heels.
Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji are back with Rediff.com's World Cup Most Valuable Players ratings.
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