The Rediff player performance tracker after the fifth ODI of the current season shows Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh joining Piyush Chawla, Gautam Gambhir and Dinesh Karthik in the top five after their match-winning performances on Friday. Mahendra Singh Dhoni drops to the sixth place after failing with the bat.
Piyush Chawla continues to be India's most valuable ODI player (MVP) so far this season.
Sachin's performance is especially remarkable because he did not play the first two ODI's against Bangladesh.
| Rank | Country | Player | Runs | Balls | Ct | St | Rc | Bb | W | Run Outs* | M | Total |
| 1 | Ind | Piyush Chawla | 3 | 4 | 1 | 154 | 228 | 9 | 0.5 | 4 | 264.20 |
| 2 | Ind | Gautam Gambhir | 202 | 244 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 213.80 |
| 3 | Ind | Yuvraj Singh | 87 | 106 | 1 | 111 | 135 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 211.20 |
| 4 | Ind | Sachin Tendulkar | 196 | 252 | 1 | 34 | 30 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 209.40 |
| 5 | Ind | Dinesh Karthik | 115 | 111 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 186.20 |
| 6 | Ind | Mahendra Singh Dhoni | 127 | 164 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.5 | 3 | 164.80 |
| 7 | Ind | Rahul Dravid | 140 | 189 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.5 | 5 | 150.80 |
| 8 | Ind | Zaheer Khan | 9 | 4 | 0 | 161 | 198 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 132.20 |
| 9 | Ind | R P Singh | 0 | 0 | 0 | 102 | 144 | 4 | 0.5 | 3 | 121.20 |
| 10 | Ind | Ramesh Powar | 6 | 14 | 0 | 172 | 240 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 116.80 |
| 11 | Ind | Sourav Ganguly | 128 | 196 | 1 | 41 | 60 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 111.20 |
| 12 | Ind | Virender Sehwag | 51 | 47 | 2 | 46 | 48 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 90.80 |
| 13 | Ind | Dinesh Mongia | 34 | 41 | 0 | 106 | 108 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 87.60 |
| 14 | Ind | Sreesanth | 0 | 0 | 0 | 64 | 90 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 80.00 |
| 15 | Ind | Ajit Agarkar | 0 | 0 | 0 | 27 | 60 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 45.00 |
| 16 | Ind | Rohit Sharma | 8 | 9 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 20.60 |
| 17 | Ind | Munaf Patel | 0 | 0 | 0 | 65 | 84 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2.20 |
| 18 | Ind | Ishant Sharma | 0 | 0 | 0 | 38 | 42 | 0 | 0 | 1 | -4.40 |
If one considers only the India-South Africa series so far, Sachin is India's MVP by a long mile. Even a modest performance in the last ODI game on Sunday should see him emerge as the player of the series.
The two tables below identify India and South Africa's most valuable players in the ongoing ODI series.
| Rank | Country | Player | Runs | Balls | Ct | St | Rc | Bb | W | Run Outs* | M | Total |
| 1 | Ind | Sachin Tendulkar | 192 | 249 | 1 | 10 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 184.60 |
| 2 | Ind | Yuvraj Singh | 62 | 75 | 0 | 71 | 93 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 139.40 |
| 3 | Ind | Rahul Dravid | 76 | 103 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.5 | 2 | 91.60 |
| 4 | Ind | Dinesh Karthik | 51 | 47 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 74.40 |
| 5 | Ind | Piyush Chawla | 2 | 2 | 0 | 88 | 108 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 72.80 |
| 6 | Ind | Zaheer Khan | 0 | 0 | 0 | 75 | 114 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 64.20 |
| 7 | Ind | R P Singh | 0 | 0 | 0 | 66 | 84 | 2 | 0.5 | 2 | 61.20 |
| 8 | Ind | Ramesh Powar | 1 | 3 | 0 | 85 | 120 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 34.60 |
| 9 | Ind | Sourav Ganguly | 55 | 97 | 0 | 26 | 24 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 25.60 |
| 10 | Ind | Rohit Sharma | 8 | 9 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 15.60 |
| 11 | Ind | Mahendra Singh Dhoni | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1.80 |
| 12 | Ind | Ishant Sharma | 0 | 0 | 0 | 38 | 42 | 0 | 0 | 1 | -4.40 |
| 13 | Ind | Goutam Gambhir | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | -5.60 |
| Rank | Country | Player | Runs | Balls | Ct | St | Rc | Bb | W | Run Outs* | M | Total |
| 1 | SA | Jaques Kallis | 93 | 122 | 2 | 28 | 31 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 143.20 |
| 2 | SA | Morne van Wyk | 126 | 181 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.5 | 2 | 119.20 |
| 3 | SA | Mark Boucher | 78 | 85 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.5 | 2 | 105.00 |
| 4 | SA | Andrew Hall | 33 | 34 | 0 | 94 | 120 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 88.80 |
| 5 | SA | Andre Nel | 1 | 3 | 0 | 88 | 120 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 79.60 |
| 6 | SA | Makhaya Ntini | 0 | 0 | 0 | 70 | 120 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 50.00 |
| 7 | SA | Jean-Paul Duminy | 51 | 74 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 42.80 |
| 8 | SA | Charl Langeveldt | 0 | 0 | 1 | 102 | 108 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 37.40 |
| 9 | SA | Herschelle Gibbs | 22 | 35 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 21.00 |
| 10 | SA | Thandi Tshabalala | 0 | 0 | 0 | 42 | 48 | 1 | 1 | 20.40 | |
| 11 | SA | AB de Villiers | 24 | 43 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 18.60 |
| 12 | SA | Vernon Philander | 17 | 22 | 0 | 37 | 48 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 17.80 |
Rc: Runs conceded | Bb: Balls bowled | W: Wickets taken | M: Matches played. *Run outs are counted as 1 for a direct hit, and 0.5 if the fielder is an equal participant in a run out dismissal.
Srinivas Bhogle and K Anil Kumar work for Cranes Software International Limited, Bangalore.
