Dhoni starts the new ODI season impressively

Although the Indian captain M S Dhoni performs well in all three forms of cricket, he seems best equipped to play ODI cricket. In ODI cricket, a strike rate just below 100 - which is the rate Dhoni is now most comfortable with - is considered excellent. Also the 50 overs allow the calm captain sufficient leverage to swing close matches his team's way.

Dhoni emerged as the most valuable player in the West Indies-India ODI series that had a wet end last night. Yuvraj Singh is just behind him. Table 1 ranks all the players who played in the series.

Table 1: The most valuable players in the West Indies - India ODI series (4 matches played; 3 completed)

Player	Team	Runs	Six	Four	Strike Rate	Bat Pts	W	Eco	Bowl Pts	Field Pts	M	MVPI	Age
MS Dhoni	IND	182	4	10	86.7	189.0	0	--	0.0	55	4	244	28
Yuvraj Singh	IND	168	8	15	119.1	218.5	0	8.8	-23.0	0	4	196	27
Chris Gayle	WI	128	3	19	134.7	176.8	0	6.5	-12.0	10	4	175	29
Dwayne Bravo	WI	22	0	1	55.0	10.7	6	5.2	146.0	10	4	167	25
Runako Morton	WI	161	2	11	77.0	147.8	0	--	0.0	5	4	153	31
Ramnaresh Sarwan	WI	134	4	7	95.7	151.3	0	--	0.0	0	4	151	29
Ashish Nehra	IND	0	0	0	0.0	-2.5	6	5.8	133.3	5	4	136	30
Ravi Rampaul	WI	0	0	0	--	0.0	4	4.5	107.0	25	3	132	24
Dinesh Karthik	IND	118	2	11	94.4	131.8	0	--	0.0	0	4	132	24
Denesh Ramdin	WI	43	2	2	134.4	59.3	0	--	0.0	70	4	129	24
Rohit Sharma	IND	15	0	0	65.2	10.8	3	3.8	86.0	22.5	4	119	22
Yusuf Pathan	IND	41	2	2	83.7	41.2	4	7.1	71.0	0	4	112	26
Harbhajan Singh	IND	28	2	0	103.7	33.5	3	5.9	54.8	10	4	98	29
Shivnarine Chanderpaul	WI	96	3	5	84.2	97.0	0	--	0.0	0	4	97	34
Jerome Taylor	WI	22	0	4	129.4	29.8	4	6.4	66.8	0	4	97	25
Gautam Gambhir	IND	57	1	2	105.6	69.0	0	--	0.0	17.5	4	87	27
Sulieman Benn	WI	7	0	1	116.7	9.0	2	4.7	57.0	5	3	71	28
Darren Bravo	WI	40	0	5	129.0	54.2	0	--	0.0	5	4	59	20
David Bernard	WI	19	0	1	95.0	21.3	2	6.0	32.0	5	4	58	28
Ishant Sharma	IND	0	0	0	--	0.0	2	6.4	30.0	5	3	35	20
Ravindra Jadeja	IND	7	0	1	53.8	3.2	0	5.1	-1.0	5	2	7	20
Lionel Baker	WI	0	0	0	0.0	-1.7	1	6.9	8.0	0	1	6	24
S Badrinath	IND	0	0	0	--	0.0	0	--	0.0	0	0	0	28
Abhishek Nayar	IND	0	0	0	--	0.0	0	--	0.0	0	2	0	25
Pragyan Ojha	IND	0	0	0	--	0.0	0	--	0.0	0	0	0	22
Murali Vijay	IND	0	0	0	--	0.0	0	--	0.0	0	0	0	25
Narsingh Deonarine	WI	0	0	0	--	0.0	0	--	0.0	0	0	0	25
Praveen Kumar	IND	1	0	0	20.0	-2.2	0	5.3	-2.0	0	1	-4	22
RP Singh	IND	23	1	1	30.7	-16.5	1	6.2	7.0	5	4	-5	23

Runs (scored) | Sixes | Fours | Strike rate | Bat-pts: Batting points | W: Wickets taken | Eco: Economy rate | Bowl-pts: Bowling points | Field-pts: fielding points | M: Matches played | MVPI: Most valuable player index = sum of batting, bowling and fielding points | Age | *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.

We will also list India's most valuable players right through the new (2009-10) ODI season. Currently, Dhoni is India's most valuable player (see Table 2), but, as the season advances, he should face greater competition from Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag (the MVP of the 2008-09 season), Sachin Tendulkar (MVP of the 2007-08 season) and perhaps even Rahul Dravid!

Table 2: India's most valuable players in the 2009-10 ODI season (4 matches so far)

Player	Runs	Six	Four	Strike Rate	Bat Pts	W	Eco	Bowl Pts	Field Pts	M	MVPI	Age
MS Dhoni	182	4	10	86.7	189.0	0	--	0.0	55	4	244	28
Yuvraj Singh	168	8	15	119.1	218.5	0	8.8	-23.0	0	4	196	27
Ashish Nehra	0	0	0	0.0	-2.5	6	5.8	133.3	5	4	136	30
Dinesh Karthik	118	2	11	94.4	131.8	0	--	0.0	0	4	132	24
Rohit Sharma	15	0	0	65.2	10.8	3	3.8	86.0	22.5	4	119	22
Yusuf Pathan	41	2	2	83.7	41.2	4	7.1	71.0	0	4	112	26
Harbhajan Singh	28	2	0	103.7	33.5	3	5.9	54.8	10	4	98	29
Gautam Gambhir	57	1	2	105.6	69.0	0	--	0.0	17.5	4	87	27
Ishant Sharma	0	0	0	--	0.0	2	6.4	30.0	5	3	35	20
Ravindra Jadeja	7	0	1	53.8	3.2	0	5.1	-1.0	5	2	7	20
S Badrinath	0	0	0	--	0.0	0	--	0.0	0	0	0	28
Abhishek Nayar	0	0	0	--	0.0	0	--	0.0	0	2	0	25
Pragyan Ojha	0	0	0	--	0.0	0	--	0.0	0	0	0	22
Murali Vijay	0	0	0	--	0.0	0	--	0.0	0	0	0	25
Praveen Kumar	1	0	0	20.0	-2.2	0	5.3	-2.0	0	1	-4	22
RP Singh	23	1	1	30.7	-16.5	1	6.2	7.0	5	4	-5	23

Runs (scored) | Sixes | Fours | Strike rate | Bat-pts: Batting points | W: Wickets taken | Eco: Economy rate | Bowl-pts: Bowling points | Field-pts: fielding points | M: Matches played | MVPI: Most valuable player index = sum of batting, bowling and fielding points | Age | *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.