It's not clear if the India-New Zealand One-Day International series offered a man of the series award. But there can be no doubt that the overwhelming favourite for the award was Virender Sehwag [Images].

Sehwag plundered almost 300 runs, at a staggering strike rate of 150, to be right at the top of the list of the most valuable players (MVP) of the series.

The MVP index (MVPI) is calculated based on the assumption that, in ODI cricket, batsmen offer the best value if they  score a lot of runs with good strike rates, bowlers if they take a lot of wickets at good (low) economy rates, and fielders if they take the most catches or make the most run outs. The MVPI collapses the player's all-round performance into a single 'run equivalent'.

Jesse Ryder [Images] is the only New Zealander to make it to the top five; and although he played only three of the five matches, Sachin Tendulkar [Images] still ends up being third in a list dominated by batsmen.

Yuvraj Singh [Images] had a relatively poor series with the bat, but made it to the top five because of his 4 wickets.

Table 1: The most valuable players in the New Zealand [Images] - India ODI series (5 matches played; 4 completed)

Rank	Player	Team	Runs	Balls	S/R	Bat Pts	Bb	Rc	W	Eco	Bowl Pts	Ct St	Run Outs	Field Pts	M	MVPI
1	V Sehwag	IND	299	199	150.3	432.2	0	0	0	-	0.0	2	0.5	22.5	5	455
2	Jesse Ryder	NZ	225	211	106.6	274.2	112	126	3	6.8	42.3	0	0	0	5	317
3	S Tendulkar	IND	244	225	108.4	300.5	0	0	0	-	0.0	1	0	5	3	306
4	MS Dhoni	IND	184	187	98.4	212.2	0	0	0	-	0.0	3	1.5	52.5	5	265
5	Yuvraj Singh	IND	100	101	99.0	115.8	150	153	4	6.1	72.0	0	0.5	12.5	5	200
6	Suresh Raina [Images]	IND	125	84	148.8	180.0	0	0	0	-	0.0	1	0.5	17.5	5	198
7	B McCullum	NZ	150	176	85.2	153.3	0	0	0	-	0.0	2	0	10	5	163
8	M Guptill	NZ	147	173	85.0	149.8	0	0	0	-	0.0	0	0.5	12.5	5	162
9	Kyle Mills [Images]	NZ	54	34	158.8	79.7	186	200	4	6.5	55.0	0	0	0	4	135
10	PD McGlashan	NZ	63	51	123.5	83.5	0	0	0	-	0.0	7	0	35	1	119
11	Yusuf Pathan [Images]	IND	21	16	131.3	28.7	58	37	3	3.8	86.3	0	0	0	5	115
12	Daniel Vettori [Images]	NZ	26	15	173.3	39.5	114	107	2	5.6	38.0	0	1.5	37.5	4	115
13	G Gambhir	IND	113	146	77.4	104.3	0	0	0	-	0.0	1	0	5	5	109
14	H Singh	IND	1	5	20.0	-2.2	148	148	5	6.0	100.3	1	0	5	5	103
15	Grant Elliott [Images]	NZ	64	62	103.2	76.3	66	89	2	8.1	16.0	1	0	5	5	97
16	Ross Taylor [Images]	NZ	71	76	93.4	78.7	0	0	0	-	0.0	3	0	15	5	94
17	Zaheer Khan [Images]	IND	5	10	50.0	1.7	198	184	4	5.6	81.0	2	0	10	5	93
18	Ian Butler	NZ	24	20	120.0	31.3	90	80	2	5.3	45.0	0	0	0	3	76
19	P Kumar	IND	6	12	50.0	2.0	151	161	4	6.4	64.8	1	0	5	5	72
20	Jacob Oram [Images]	NZ	8	14	57.1	4.3	165	147	2	5.3	40.5	0	1	25	5	70
21	Ishant Sharma [Images]	IND	3	7	42.9	0.2	92	120	3	7.8	31.7	0	0	0	2	32
22	Rohit Sharma [Images]	IND	43	74	58.1	24.3	0	0	0	-	0.0	1	0	5	2	29
23	Iain O'Brien	NZ	3	8	37.5	-0.7	147	176	3	7.2	21.5	1	0	5	4	26
24	Scott Styris	NZ	0	0	-	0.0	0	0		-	0.0	1	0	5	1	5
25	D Karthik	IND	0	0	-	0.0	0	0	0	-	0.0	1	0	5	0	5

Runs (scored) | Balls (faced) | S/R: Strike Rate | Bat-pts: Batting points |  Bb: Balls bowled | Rc: Runs conceded | W: Wickets taken | Eco: Economy rate | 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.

Right through the 2008-09 ODI season there has been a fierce competition between Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh for the season's top MVP slot. But it now looks as though Sehwag has run away with the prize.

Yuvraj faces stiff competition from his captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni [Images] for the second place. And there is another lively contest for the fourth place between left-handers Gautam Gambhir [Images] and Suresh Raina.

Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma continue to be the best bowlers of the 2008-09 Indian ODI season, but Zaheer is placed higher because his economy rate is much better than Ishant's  -- for practically the same number of wickets.

Table 2: India's most valuable players in the 2008-09 ODI season (29 matches so far):

Rank	Player	Runs	Balls	S/R	Bat Pts	Bb	Rc	W	Eco	Bowl Pts	Ct St	Run Outs	Field Pts	M	MVPI
1	V Sehwag	1280	970	132.0	1751.7	407	368	10	5.4	221.2	7	0.5	47.5	22	2020
2	Yuvraj Singh	1075	1044	103.0	1280.0	670	592	17	5.3	391.3	6	1	55	28	1726
3	MS Dhoni	1200	1350	88.9	1275.0	0	0	0	-	0.0	35	8	375	29	1650
4	G Gambhir	1054	1117	94.4	1177.2	0	0	0	-	0.0	10	1	75	27	1252
5	Suresh Raina	947	969	97.7	1086.5	102	81	0	4.8	4.0	14	3.5	157.5	29	1248
6	Zaheer Khan	41	106	38.7	-6.3	884	656	24	4.5	680.7	6	1	55	18	729
7	Yusuf Pathan	200	185	108.1	245.8	452	399	10	5.3	227.7	6	2.5	92.5	22	566
8	P Kumar	37	58	63.8	25.7	792	679	20	5.1	481.0	4	0.5	32.5	18	539
9	I Sharma	15	32	46.9	3.3	872	903	26	6.2	473.7	5	0	25	17	502
10	H Singh	26	59	44.1	2.8	578	473	18	4.9	458.7	3	1	40	14	502
11	Rohit Sharma	384	554	69.3	306.3	119	77	0	3.9	22.2	8	2.5	102.5	23	431
12	S Tendulkar	323	340	95.0	362.7	6	11	0	11.0	-6.0	7	0.5	47.5	8	404
13	Pragyan Ojha	27	46	58.7	15.7	480	336	12	4.2	364.0	4	0	20	9	400
14	Irfan Pathan [Images]	113	147	76.9	103.5	616	586	14	5.7	277.3	1	0	5	12	386
15	Munaf Patel [Images]	20	18	111.1	25.0	474	400	12	5.1	295.0	3	1	40	13	360
16	RP Singh	8	19	42.1	0.2	420	413	12	5.9	237.0	2	2	60	9	297
17	P Chawla	2	7	28.6	-1.8	322	295	11	5.5	248.3	1	0	5	6	252
18	Virat Kohli [Images]	159	239	66.5	118.8	0	0	0	-	0.0	3	0.5	27.5	5	146
19	M Gony	0	0	-	0.0	94	76	2	4.9	52.3	0	0	0	2	52
20	R Uthappa	37	61	60.7	23.2	0	0	0	-	0.0	0	0	0	3	23
21	S Badrinath	39	87	44.8	5.5	0	0	0	-	0.0	2	0	10	3	16
22	L Balaji [Images]	7	10	70.0	5.7	30	32	0	6.4	-7.0	0	0	0	1	-1

Runs (scored) | Balls (faced) | S/R: Strike rate | Bat-pts: Batting points | Bb: Balls bowled | Rc: Runs conceded | W: Wickets taken | Eco: Economy rate | 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.