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MVP Race: Tough Task To Beat Sunil Narine

Last updated on: May 02, 2024 09:30 IST

Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji present Rediff.com's Most Valuable Player Index of IPL 2024 after Game 46.

Sunil Narine

IMAGE: Kolkata Knight Riders star Sunil Narine on the attack during the IPL 2024 game against the Royal Challengers Bangalore. Photograph: BCCI

As Sunil Narine continued to blaze away, there was speculation that there might be two Caps -- Orange and Purple -- on his head.

While that is looking unlikely now, it will still be hard to dislodge the MVPI cap sitting firmly on his head.

When you score 357 runs at a strike rate of 184, and take 10 wickets at an economy rate of 7, the MVPI soars into the stratosphere!

Narine's MVPI is currently 692, still 166 ahead of the very prolific Virat Kohli who is second at 528.

MVPI collapses a player's batting, bowling and fielding performance into a simple 'runs equivalent', and rewards batters who score a lot of runs at a high strike rate and bowlers who take a lot of wickets at a low economy rate.

IMAGE: RCB's Virat Kohli, the current Orange Cap holder. Photograph: BCCI

What the cricket fan would find most heart-warming is Rishabh Pant at third place with a MVPI of 489. What a delight to have him back impervious and unscathed!

It is always interesting to look at the last column of the table listing the paisa vasool (or player value) index (PVI).

The more expensive players tend to have a PVI of over 2000 when converted to US$, but we also find players (often bought at their base price) having a PVI(US$) of 100 or less.

Players like Tristan Stubbs (PVI 104), B Sai Sudarshan (45), Jake Fraser-McGurk (121), Phil Salt (275), Shashank Singh (45), Matheesha Pathirana (58) and Rajat Patidar (66) have provided fabulous value.

Best Performing Players so far in IPL 2024 (after Match 46 ending 29.4.24)

RankPlayerTeamFromRunsTop Score4s6sStrike RateWicketsEconomy RateMMVPIPVI(US$)
1 Sunil Narine KKR WI 357 109 37 24 184 10 7 8 692 597
2 Virat Kohli RCB IND 500 113 46 20 147.5 0 - 10 528 2445
3 Rishabh Pant DC IND 371 88 29 23 160.6 0 - 10 489 2816
4 Sanju Samson RR IND 385 82 36 17 161.1 0 - 9 463 2342
5 Ruturaj Gaikwad CSK IND 447 108 48 13 149.5 0 - 9 458 1015
6 Travis Head SRH AUS 338 102 40 19 211.3 0 - 8 436 1208
7 KL Rahul LSG IND 378 82 34 14 144.3 0 - 9 429 3069
8 Abhishek Sharma SRH ND 303 63 22 27 214.9 0 9 9 419 1202
9 Tristan Stubbs DC SA 273 71 18 19 192.3 2 11 10 412 104
10 Shivam Dube CSK IND 350 66 24 26 172.4 0 - 9 396 782
11 Heinrich Klaasen SRH SA 295 80 9 28 185.5 0 - 9 394 1032
12 Tilak Varma MI IND 336 65 23 18 158.5 0 12 9 388 339
13 B Sai Sudarshan GT IND 418 84 43 9 135.7 0 - 10 383 45
14 Philip Salt KKR ENG 324 89 37 17 155.8 0 - 8 375 275
15 Nicholas Pooran LSG WI 291 64 17 22 165.3 0 - 9 366 3386
16 Riyan Parag RR IND 332 84 22 21 159.6 0 10 9 363 811
17 Jake Fraser-McGurk DC AUS 247 84 22 22 237.5 0 - 5 356 121
18 Axar Patel DC IND 134 66 9 6 135.4 7 7.4 10 354 2917
19 Andre Russell KKR WI 179 64 17 12 186.5 9 11.1 8 350 2754
20 Rohit Sharma MI IND 311 105 32 18 160.3 0 - 9 349 3551
21 Jos Buttler RR ENG 319 107 32 11 150.5 0 - 8 347 2232
22 Jasprit Bumrah MI IND 11 8 1 0 100 14 6.6 9 343 2710
23 Shashank Singh PBKS IND 263 68 19 18 182.6 0 - 9 343 45
24 Marcus Stoinis LSG AUS 254 124 22 12 155.8 3 8.7 9 342 2491
25 Dinesh Karthik RCB IND 262 83 21 19 195.5 0 - 10 335 1413
26 Sam Curran PBKS ENG 152 63 14 3 116 12 9.7 9 323 4436
27 Faf du Plessis RCB SA 288 62 29 14 159.1 0 - 10 323 1865
28 Shubman Gill GT IND 320 89 28 9 141 0 - 10 306 1969
29 Ravindra Jadeja CSK AUS 157 57 14 2 131.9 5 7.5 9 301 4117
30 Rashid Khan GT AFG 85 32 9 2 149.1 8 8 10 297 4346
31 Ishan Kishan MI IND 212 69 23 13 165.6 0 - 9 292 4045
32 Harshal Patel PBKS IND 1 1 0 0 20 14 10.2 9 272 3346
33 Matheesha Prathirana CSK SL 0 0 0 0 - 13 7.7 6 269 58
34 Jonny Bairstow PBKS ENG 204 108 20 12 168.6 0 - 7 263 1988
35 Yashasvi Jaiswal RR IND 249 104 30 10 154.7 0 - 9 263 1178
36 Rajat Patidar RCB IND 211 52 11 18 175.8 0 - 10 260 66
37 Pat Cummins SRH AUS 42 31 2 3 140 10 9.1 9 257 6178
38 Quinton de Kock LSG SA 236 81 27 9 136.4 0 - 9 240 2178
39 Yuzvendra Chahal RR IND 0 0 0 0 - 13 9 9 240 2098
40 T Natarajan SRH IND 0 0 0 0 - 13 9 7 240 1291
41 Hardik Pandya MI IND 197 46 16 10 151.5 4 11.9 9 239 4861
42 Mustafizur Rahman CSK BAN 0 0 0 0 - 14 9.8 8 235 659
43 Shreyas Iyer KKR IND 218 50 20 9 136.3 0 - 8 235 3589
44 Trent Boult RR NZ 0 0 0 0 0 10 7.8 9 235 2637
45 Will Jacks RCB ENG 176 100 12 15 191.3 2 11.3 5 234 1177
46 Prabhsimran Singh PBKS IND 208 54 22 13 163.8 0 - 9 232 240
47 Daryl Mitchell CSK NZ 198 52 14 6 132 1 9 8 231 4694
48 Kuldeep Yadav DC IND 1 1 0 0 33.3 12 8.4 7 229 752
49 Tim David MI AUS 182 45 10 12 164 0 - 9 228 2803
50 Abdul Samad SRH IND 148 37 15 8 187.3 0 - 9 220 1408
 

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com

SRINIVAS BHOGLE, PURNENDU MAJI