Symonds emerges as the MVP

The top seven most valuable players in the recently-concluded India-Australia seven-match one-day international series were all Australians.

Andrew Symonds, who was also named the player of the series, emerged as the most valuable player -- but purely on his batting skills.

Australian captain Ricky Ponting ended up 13th on the list, but this isn't going to happen very often again.

Table 1: Most valuable players in the India-Australia ODI series:

Rank	Player	Runs	Balls	Bat-pts	Rc	Bb	W	Bowl-pts	Ct|St	Run outs	Field-pts	M	Total
1	Andrew Symonds	365	330	466	78	102	0	4	1	0	5	7	474.60
2	Mitchell Johnson	25	32	24	260	342	14	350	1	0	5	7	379.00
3	James Hopes	136	113	182	175	228	6	151	1	0	5	7	338.00
4	Adam Gilchrist	208	214	245	0	0	0	0	12|2	12	92	7	336.80
5	Mathew Hayden	290	329	317	0	0	0	0	2	0	10	5	326.80
6	Michael Clarke	222	258	238	74	84	3	65	2	12	22	7	324.80
7	Brad Hogg	0	4	-3	249	327	11	277	1	12	17	7	290.40
8	Robin Uthappa	167	144	219	0	0	0	0	3	24	39	6	257.80
9	Mahendra Singh Dhoni	176	207	186	0	0	0	0	5|3	12	67	7	253.40
10	Sachin Tendulkar	278	402	234	75	84	0	-8	4	0	20	7	246.60
11	Zaheer Khan	68	108	50	355	366	8	130	2	36	46	7	225.40
12	Yuvraj Singh	192	224	205	114	102	2	16	1	0	5	7	225.40
13	Ricky Ponting	199	237	208	0	0	0	0	3	0	15	5	223.40
14	Murali Kartik	21	38	12	164	221	8	205	0	0	0	4	216.40
15	Brad Haddin	200	243	206	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	205.60
16	Brett Lee	24	21	31	240	298	6	142	1	24	29	7	202.60
17	Irfan Pathan	59	108	32	282	324	7	145	1	0	5	7	181.80
18	S Sreesanth	8	37	-14	244	216	9	145	2	0	10	4	141.20
19	Harbhajan Singh	53	89	35	261	324	3	70	3	0	15	6	120.00
20	Sourav Ganguly	127	181	109	31	18	0	-17	0	0	0	5	92.60
21	R P Singh	12	27	2	207	183	5	59	1	24	29	4	90.80
22	Stuart Clark	0	0	0	58	88	3	84	0	0	0	3	84.40
23	Nathan Bracken	3	18	-8	191	220	4	81	1	0	5	4	77.60
24	Rahul Dravid	51	80	38	0	0	0	0	5	0	25	6	63.00
25	Brad Hodge	59	108	32	18	12	0	-8	4	12	32	7	55.20
26	Goutam Gambhir	17	34	7	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	6.80
27	Dinesh Karthik	0	6	-5	0	0	0	0	1	0	5	1	0.20
28	Rohit Sharma	1	4	-1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	-1.20
29	Ramesh Powar	17	18	20	80	66	0	-27	0	0	0	2	-7.60

Runs (scored) | Balls (taken) | Bat-pts: Batting points | | Rc: Runs conceded | Bb: Balls bowled | W: Wickets taken | 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.

For India, it was all rather disappointing. There must be something amiss with this team if Sachin Tendulkar, after 18 long years in the business, still continues to be its most valuable player. Of course, this is also an amazing tribute to the greatest ODI player that the world has ever seen. The table below lists India's most valuable players in the current season.

Table 2: India's most valuable players after the 2007 World Cup (21 matches):

Player	Runs	Balls	Bat-pts	Rc	Bb	W	Bowl-pts	Ct|St	Run outs	Field-pts	M	Total
Sachin Tendulkar	835	1062	820.40	193	192	3	32.60	4	12	32	17	885.00
Yuvraj Singh	644	743	693.60	388	375	8	104.00	5	24	49	20	846.60
M S Dhoni	487	613	483.60	0	0	0	0.00	17|7	60	215	18	698.60
Sourav Ganguly	522	734	456.80	192	252	4	105.60	1	24	29	15	591.40
Rahul Dravid	462	554	480.80	0	0	0	0.00	10	12	62	20	542.80
Zaheer Khan	108	147	98.40	793	888	16	301.40	2	60	70	17	469.80
Piyush Chawla	20	34	12.80	538	666	17	402.80	8	12	52	13	467.60
R P Singh	25	54	6.80	513	618	16	365.40	1	36	41	13	413.20
Goutam Gambhir	422	561	395.20	0	0	0	0.00	1	0	5	13	400.20
Robin Uthappa	244	210	320.00	0	0	0	0.00	4	48	68	8	388.00
Ramesh Powar	46	78	29.60	528	668	10	246.40	2	0	10	13	286.00
Dinesh Karthik	180	211	191.20	0	0	0	0.00	11|1	12	77	12	268.20
Ajit Agarkar	19	38	7.60	415	414	12	204.20	2	12	22	8	233.80
S Sreesanth	8	37	-13.60	308	306	12	224.80	2	0	10	6	221.20
Irfan Pathan	59	103	35.60	259	294	6	120.20	1	0	5	6	160.80
Munaf Patel	1	3	-0.40	208	216	6	108.80	1	0	5	5	113.40
Harbhajan Singh	34	40	36.00	230	282	3	67.60	1	0	5	5	108.60
Virender Sehwag	51	47	64.40	46	48	1	16.40	2	0	10	2	90.80
Dinesh Mongia	34	41	35.20	106	108	3	52.40	0	0	0	2	87.60
Murali Kartik	0	4	-3.20	137	161	2	39.80	0	0	0	3	36.60
Rohit Sharma	9	13	7.60	3	6	0	1.80	2	0	10	3	19.40
Ishant Sharma	0	0	0.00	38	42	0	-4.40	0	0	0	1	-4.40

Runs (scored) | Balls (taken) | Bat-pts: Batting points | | Rc: Runs conceded | Bb: Balls bowled | W: Wickets taken | 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.

 

Srinivas Bhogle, Debasish Ghosh and K Anil Kumar work for Cranes Software International [Get Quote] Limited, Bangalore.