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MVP: Kohli rules supreme yet again!

Last updated on: November 03, 2017 08:27 IST

Virat Kohli, who recently became the fastest batsman in ODIs to score 9,000 runs, is the Most Valuable Player of the ODI series against New Zealand.
Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji explain why the Indian skipper is tops.

Virat Kohli

IMAGE: Virat Kohli celebrates his century in the final ODI against New Zealand in Kanpur, October 29, 2017. Photograph: BCCI

Virat Kohli once again finished as the most valuable player in the One-Day International series against New Zealand.

 

With two centuries in three matches, this is hardly a surprise.

The India captain is in the form of his life. During the third ODI in Kanpur, Kohli became the sixth Indian and the fastest batsman overall in ODIs to score 9,000 runs.

Earlier in the series, he surpassed Australian great Ricky Ponting in the list of most ODI hundreds with his 31st ton before scoring another series century in the series decider.

Kohli (MVPI: 314) is followed by Tom Latham (242), Rohit Sharma (202) and Jasprit Bumrah (172) who bowled an absolutely magical last over in the Kanpur ODI.

It was a close series and one reason why New Zealand didn't reach the winning post first was the low MVPI score of two of its best batsmen: Kane Williamson (73) and Martin Guptill (57).

The most valuable player has the highest Most Valuable Player Index (MVPI).

The MVPI formula picks out batsmen who score a lot of runs at a high strike rate, bowlers who take a lot of wickets at a low economy rate, and fielders who take the most catches or participate in run outs.

MVPI expresses a player's overall batting + bowling + fielding performance in terms of a 'run equivalent'.

Table 1: Most valuable players in the India vs New Zealand ODI series

RankPlayerRunsTop Score4s6sStrike RateWicketsEconomyMatchesMVPI
1 Virat Kohli 263 121 21 4 101.2 0 - 3 314
2 Tom Latham 206 103 17 2 95.4 0 - 3 242
3 Rohit Sharma 174 147 19 4 99.4 0 - 3 202
4 Jasprit Bumrah 0 0 0 0 - 6 4.9 3 172
5 Ross Taylor 155 95 13 0 86.1 0 - 3 165
6 Mitchell Santner 38 29 2 2 88.4 4 4.6 3 158
7 Tim Southee 29 25 2 1 126.1 6 6.9 3 145
8 Colin Munro 113 75 11 5 99.1 0 5.5 3 141
9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar 26 26 2 2 173.3 5 6.4 3 122
10 Yujvendra Chahal 0 0 0 0 - 4 4.8 3 111
11 Dinesh Karthik 105 64 8 0 73.9 0 - 3 107
12 Henry Nicholls 83 42 9 1 95.4 0 - 3 99
13 M S Dhoni 68 25 8 0 85 0 - 3 97
14 Hardik Pandya 54 30 4 2 101.9 2 6.1 3 93
15 Shikhar Dhawan 91 68 9 2 78.4 0 - 3 90
16 Trent Boult 2 2 0 0 100 4 5.7 3 87
17 Kane Williamson 73 64 8 0 68.9 0 - 3 73
18 Adam Milne 0 0 0 0 0 3 5.4 3 67
19 Martin Guptill 53 32 8 0 74.6 0 - 3 57
20 Colin de Grandhomme 49 41 5 1 96.1 1 6.5 3 52
21 Kedar Jadhav 30 18 2 1 85.7 0 5.3 3 36
22 Axar Patel 0 0 0 0 - 1 5.5 2 16
23 Kuldeep Yadav 0 0 0 0 - 1 6.4 1 11

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.

Kohli is also this season's most valuable Indian player with an aggregated MVPI of 1553 (over the 23 matches played this season).

Rohit Sharma, who is batting almost as well as Kohli, and hit twice as many sixes, is second (1229).

He could have overtaken Kohli if he hadn't missed five matches because of injury.

All-rounder Hardik Pandya (1082) is in third position. He has scored only 424 runs (at a blazing strike rate of almost 120), but also taken 22 wickets at a reasonable economy rate of 5.6.

The table contains other pointers. Arguably the most glaring is that Ravichandran Ashwin played only six matches this season in which he has picked up five wickets, while Ravindra Jadeja played seven matches for a haul of four wickets.

Table 2: Most valuable Indian ODI players in the 2017-18 season (23 matches so far)

RankPlayer nameRuns4s6sStrike RateWicketsEconomyMatchesMVPI
1 Virat Kohli 1,275 118 17 98.1 0 5.8 23 1553
2 Rohit Sharma 1,076 103 33 96.1 0 - 18 1229
3 Hardik Pandya 424 23 26 118.4 22 5.6 22 1082
4 Shikhar Dhawan 780 100 12 102.1 0 - 17 953
5 Jasprit Bumrah 11 2 0 73.3 30 4.7 17 889
6 Bhuvneshwar Kumar 132 12 3 79.5 24 4.9 19 792
7 M S Dhoni 551 38 9 81.8 0 - 23 785
8 Kedar Jadhav 329 35 5 95.6 10 5.2 22 682
9 Ajinkya Rahane 585 63 4 78.2 0 - 11 567
10 Kuldeep Yadav 2 0 0 25 19 4.9 12 493
11 Yuzvendra Chahal 1 0 0 50 15 4.9 11 404
12 Umesh Yadav 2 0 0 66.7 14 5.4 8 333
13 Axar Patel 11 0 0 73.3 10 4.6 8 315
14 Manish Pandey 169 17 1 94.9 0 - 7 210
15 Ravindra Jadeja 26 1 0 70.3 4 5.2 7 187
16 Yuvraj Singh 162 18 2 89.5 0 5 8 178
17 Dinesh Karthik 157 13 0 73.7 0 - 5 152
18 Ravichandran Ashwin 1 0 0 33.3 5 5 6 123
19 Mohammed Shami 7 1 0 87.5 4 4.8 3 114
20 Lokesh Rahul 28 2 0 73.7 0 - 4 54
21 Shardul Thakur 0 0 0 - 1 5.7 2 26

Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji