Analysis: The hits and flops of IPL 5

The fifth edition of the Indian Premier League is over. Kolkata Knight Riders lived up to their top billing, outclassing Chennai Super Kings in the final to win their maiden IPL title.

Purnendu Maji and Srinivas Bhogle present a detailed analysis of the teams that played in the T20 tournament. 

A look at the players who impressed, who disappointed and the few, who were invisble.

We use the Most Valuable Player Index (MVPI) to make our picks. MVPI is just the sum of every player's batting, bowling and fielding points expressed in terms of 'runs'.

Pune Warriors India: (played 16, won 4, lost 12)

Impressive

Without a doubt, Steven Smith was the most impressive, contributing an equivalent of 454 runs at just $441 per run. Smith would have added even more value if he had bowled more and taken a few wickets. Robin Uthappa scored the most runs, but his strike rate (118.1) was poor and at $4639 per run he was far too expensive.

Player's Name	Team	From	Runs	Strike Rate	Bat Pts	W	Eco	Bowl Pts	Field Pts	M	MVPI	Money Offered ($)	PVI ($ per run)
Steven Smith	PWI	AUS	362	135.6	368.0	0	15.0	-2.3	88	15	454	200000	441
Robin Uthappa	PWI	IND	405	118.1	352.7	0	-	0.0	100	16	453	2100000	4639
Angelo Mathews	PWI	SL	127	117.6	110.0	7	7.4	128.0	20	9	258	950000	3222
Jesse Ryder	PWI	NZ	256	120.8	229.3	1	10.0	2.0	16	11	247	150000	606
Marlon Samuels	PWI	WI	124	100.8	84.0	8	7.5	141.3	0	8	225	100000	277

Disappointing

Ashish Nehra and Murali Kartik were supposed to be strike bowlers, but they simply failed to make the match-winning breakthroughs. Michael Clarke didn't really settle down with perhaps marriage uppermost in his thoughts.

Player's Name	Team	From	Runs	Strike Rate	Bat Pts	W	Eco	Bowl Pts	Field Pts	M	MVPI	Money Offered (US $)	PVI ($ per run)
Ashish Nehra	PWI	IND	11	91.7	6.0	11	8.4	158.0	4	13	168	850000	5060
Murali Kartik	PWI	IND	26	123.8	24.0	4	7.4	86.0	24	11	134	400000	2985
Michael Clarke	PWI	AUS	98	104.3	70.7	2	6.1	53.0	4	6	128	1000000	3427

Invisible

A lot of good players hardly got to play. Examples: Wayne Parnell (visible more in a rave party), Callum Ferguson, Alfonso Thomas and Tamim Iqbal. PWI had too many foreign players combined with a wrong balance and mix.

Deccan Chargers: (played 16, won 4, lost 11, no result 1)

Impressive

Player's Name	Team	From	Runs	Strike Rate	Bat Pts	W	Eco	Bowl Pts	Field Pts	M	MVPI	Money Offered (US $)	PVI ($ per run)
Shikhar Dhawan	DC	IND	569	129.6	552.7	3	9.2	41.0	36	15	630	300000	476
Cameron White	DC	AUS	479	149.7	531.3	0	8.0	0.0	12	13	543	1100000	2025
Dale Steyn	DC	SA	19	90.5	10.0	18	6.1	376.3	16	12	402	1200000	2983
Jean-Paul Duminy	DC	SA	244	128.4	234.7	1	8.7	8.0	24	9	267	300000	1125
Daniel Christian	DC	AUS	145	122.9	132.7	8	8.8	107.0	24	7	264	900000	3413

Shikhar Dhawan scored a lot of runs and provided solidity; at $476 per run he provided excellent value. Cameron White justified his high price tag by rediscovering his form and batting explosively with a strike rate of almost 150.

Dale Steyn bowled with fire and provided IPL5's best bowling moments. JP Duminy and Daniel Christian created a few impressive moments but didn't play enough or even do enough.

Disappointing

Player's Name	Team	From	Runs	Strike Rate	Bat Pts	W	Eco	Bowl Pts	Field Pts	M	MVPI	Money Offered (US $)	PVI ($ per run)
Parthiv Patel	DC	IND	194	117.6	168.0	0	-	0.0	48	14	216	650000	3009
Kumar Sangakkara	DC	SL	200	108.7	154.7	0	-	0.0	36	12	191	700000	3442
Manpreet Gony	DC	IND	4	50.0	-2.7	3	8.6	33.0	4	6	34	290000	8447

Kumar Sangakkara failed repeatedly with the bat and looked lost both as a player and captain. Parthiv Patel is going downhill and Manpreet Gony did almost nothing right (it was a stroke of luck that earned him an India cap and therefore a princely price of $290,000).

Invisible

The Deccan Chargers had practically no bench strength (remember they sold Kevin Pietersen?) but should have found more opportunities for Rusty Theron who played rather well for Kings XI Punjab in earlier years.

Rajasthan Royals (played 16, won 7, lost 9)

Impressive

Ajinkya Rahane started very well, but lost it a bit towards the end (he has started poorly in West Indies too); but no owner can quibble when a player offers you a run for just $75!

Shane Watson came in too late to rescue the Royals, but he still provided immense value in spite of his high price tag. Rahul Dravid did almost everything right, but just didn't have enough quality on the bench. Owais Shah and Brad Hodge provide value but not enough victories.

Player's Name	Team	From	Runs	Strike Rate	Bat Pts	W	Eco	Bowl Pts	Field Pts	M	MVPI	Money Offered (US $)	PVI ($ per run)
Ajinkya Rahane	RR	IND	560	129.3	542.7	0	-	0.0	44	16	587	44000	75
Shane Watson	RR	AUS	255	151.8	286.0	6	7.0	119.0	8	7	413	1300000	1377
Rahul Dravid	RR	IND	462	112.1	374.7	0	-	0.0	36	16	411	500000	1218
Owais Shah	RR	ENG	340	132.8	338.7	0	-	0.0	36	13	375	200000	534
Brad Hodge	RR	AUS	245	140.0	256.7	1	10.5	11.0	28	12	296	475000	1607

Disappointing

Johan Botha seemed unsettled; he didn't bat well enough to hold his place on a regular basis. Ashok Menaria was hailed as an attacking batting prospect by Dravid himself, but failed to fire. Shreevats Goswami, who once sparred with his captain Virat Kohli in the India -Under 19 team, now seems to be going Parthiv Patel's way.

Player's Name	Team	From	Runs	Strike Rate	Bat Pts	W	Eco	Bowl Pts	Field Pts	M	MVPI	Money Offered (US $)	PVI ($ per run)
Johan Botha	RR	SA	58	107.4	44.0	9	7.2	175.0	12	11	231	950000	4113
Ashok Menaria	RR	IND	220	108.9	170.7	1	6.9	19.7	8	15	198	22000	111
Shreevats Goswami	RR	IND	69	103.0	48.7	0	-	0.0	40	11	89	44000	496

Invisible

We didn't see enough of Shaun Tait and the Rajasthan challenge was never the same when Kevon Cooper disappeared with injury.

Kings XI Punjab (played 16, won 8, lost 8)

Impressive

David Hussey proved to be a good captain, perhaps even better than Adam Gilchrist. He scored a lot of runs but they came at a high price because of his $1.4 million purse. Shaun Marsh was again impressive, when not injured. Azhar Mehmood provided splendid balance and Mandeep Singh and Parvinder Awana were revelations. Let us hope they don't fade away.

Player's Name	Team	From	Runs	Strike Rate	Bat Pts	W	Eco	Bowl Pts	Field Pts	M	MVPI	Money Offered (US $)	PVI ($ per run)
David Hussey	KXI	AUS	396	129.8	385.3	3	7.0	57.0	24	16	466	1400000	3002
Azhar Mahmood	KXI	ENG	186	131.0	182.7	14	7.7	236.3	28	11	447	200000	391
Mandeep Singh	KXI	IND	432	126.3	408.0	0	-	0.0	20	16	428	22000	51
Shaun Marsh	KXI	AUS	336	120.0	298.7	0	-	0.0	56	13	355	400000	1128
Parvinder Awana	KXI	IND	4	80.0	1.3	17	7.9	276.0	28	12	305	44000	144

Disappointing

Adam Gilchrist disappointed by his own lofty standards. In earlier years, despite a high price tag, Gichrist always cost less than $1000 per run; now he's close to $5000 per run! Praveen Kumar never looked lethal.

Paul Valthaty crashed tragically and Abhishek Nayar was a colossal disaster! Just a lucky India cap fetched him a price tag of $800,000!

Player's Name	Team	From	Runs	Strike Rate	Bat Pts	W	Eco	Bowl Pts	Field Pts	M	MVPI	Money Offered (US $)	PVI ($ per run)
Praveen Kumar	KXI	IND	35	116.7	30.0	9	6.9	214.0	20	16	264	800000	3030
Adam Gilchrist	KXI	AUS	172	120.3	153.3	0	-	0.0	28	7	181	900000	4963
Paul Valthaty	KXI	IND	30	58.8	-8.0	0	16.0	-8.0	0	6	-16	44000	-2750
Abhishek Nayar	KXI	IND	45	91.8	24.7	0	16.0	-8.0	0	4	17	800000	48000

Invisible

Ramesh Powar played only one match and got hit all over the park. R Sathish too seemed to be hibernating somewhere; he was a good ICL player and had his IPL moments too in an earlier season.

Royal Challengers Bangalore (played 16, won 8, lost 7, no result 1)

Impressive

Chris Gayle had his best IPL, surpassed all expectations, hit 59 sixes, but even this wasn't enough to take RCB into the semi-finals. 'On paper' AB de Villiers, was paid twice as much as Gayle and performed half as well … but even that was quite an outstanding effort (remember he kept wickets too!).

Virat Kohli was either tired, or took things lightly, but, in his present form, even that added up to a reasonable contribution (don't forget he captained about half the matches too). Zaheer Khan took a lot of wickets and seemed to fire selectively (but has he forgotten how to bat?). Muralitharan did well whenever he was played and offered excellent value with a PVI of just 714.

Player's Name	Team	From	Runs	Strike Rate	Bat Pts	W	Eco	Bowl Pts	Field Pts	M	MVPI	Money Offered (US $)	PVI ($ per run)
Chris Gayle	RCB	WI	733	160.7	858.0	0	14.1	-28.7	8	14	837	550000	657
AB de Villiers	RCB	SA	317	160.1	370.0	0	-	0.0	84	15	454	1100000	2423
Virat Kohli	RCB	IND	364	111.7	293.3	0	16.3	-25.0	52	15	320	1800000	5619
Zaheer Khan	RCB	IND	12	70.6	1.3	17	7.6	299.0	20	15	320	900000	2810
M Muralitharan	RCB	SL	6	66.7	0.0	15	6.5	300.0	8	10	308	220000	714

Disappointing

Vinay Kumar had his good moments, but performed disappointingly, especially given that he was the local boy.

Dilshan's strike rate was a puzzle; he was probably confused about his role, and worried about holding his place, and Vettori just didn't get enough wickets to hold his place. Lady Luck once smiled on Saurabh Tiwary when he was bought for an astronomical sum but his happy days will end unless he re-architects his batting.

Player's Name	Team	From	Runs	Strike Rate	Bat Pts	W	Eco	Bowl Pts	Field Pts	M	MVPI	Money Offered (US $)	PVI ($ per run)
Vinay Kumar	RCB	IND	68	109.7	53.3	19	8.6	270.7	40	14	364	1000000	2747
Tillakaratne Dilshan	RCB	SL	285	109.2	222.0	0	11.0	-21.0	20	9	221	650000	2941
Saurabh Tiwary	RCB	IND	191	112.4	155.3	0	-	0.0	20	14	175	1600000	9125
Daniel Vettori	RCB	NZ	31	119.2	27.3	5	6.7	124.0	12	9	163	550000	3367

Invisible

Andrew McDonald was wasted, Charles Langeveldt had nothing to do, Dirk Nannes blogged more than he played, and poor Luke Pomersbach was visible more on TV channels than on the playing field. Some of these players should opt for Indian passports!

Mumbai Indians (played 17, won 10, lost 7)

Impressive

Kieron Pollard's strike rate dropped, he scored fewer runs, hit fewer sixes (14) but he did manage to take a lot of wickets and field exceptionally. Lasith Malinga is a T20 natural and finds it easy to blow away wickets, especially of IPL's many mediocre batsmen.

Rohit Sharma was MI's best batsman (but why didn't his captain ask him to bowl? He has an IPL hat-trick and just took four wickets for India A in West Indies). Ambati Rayadu and James Franklin did well; better still, they cost less than $200 per run!

Player's Name	Team	From	Runs	Strike Rate	Bat Pts	W	Eco	Bowl Pts	Field Pts	M	MVPI	Money Offered (US $)	PVI ($ per run)
Kieron Pollard	MI	WI	220	138.4	228.0	16	8.0	256.7	48	14	533	900000	1690
Lasith Malinga	MI	SL	55	103.8	39.3	22	6.3	446.0	24	14	509	500000	982
Rohit Sharma	MI	IND	433	126.6	410.0	0	16.0	-8.0	68	17	470	2000000	4255
Ambati Rayudu	MI	IND	333	132.1	330.0	0	-	0.0	24	17	354	66000	186
James Franklin	MI	NZ	220	98.7	142.7	6	8.1	95.0	16	12	254	50000	197

Disappointing

There was a time when Harbhajan Singh was both an attacking batsman and bowler. Now he may be neither with just over 100 runs and only 6 wickets in 17 matches! He wasn't even an attacking captain.

Sachin Tendulkar didn't look like Sachin Tendulkar of the old perhaps because of his changed hairstyle. Dinesh Karthik was capable of more, and it is hard to believe that R P Singh once wore the purple cap.

Player's Name	Team	From	Runs	Strike Rate	Bat Pts	W	Eco	Bowl Pts	Field Pts	M	MVPI	Money Offered (US $)	PVI ($ per run)
Harbhajan Singh	MI	IND	108	135.0	109.3	6	7.1	144.0	44	17	297	1300000	4372
Sachin Tendulkar	MI	IND	324	114.5	270.7	0	-	0.0	0	13	271	1800000	6650
Dinesh Karthik	MI	IND	238	111.7	192.0	0	-	0.0	60	17	252	900000	3571
RP Singh	MI	IND	6	50.0	-4.0	10	7.8	170.0	24	11	190	600000	3158

Invisible

Why do Mumbai Indians contract so many foreign players and consign them to the bench? Richard Levi, Herschelle Gibbs and Robin Pieterson only had brief outings; Clint McKay and Thisara Perera made fleeting appearances and Mitchell Johnson was a complete no show.

Delhi Daredevils (played 18, won 11, lost 7)

Impressive

Virender Sehwag started tentatively, and ended lamely. But there was a phase in the middle when he was in magical form. When the going was good, Sehwag's Daredevils were very good. But when it came to the crunch they choked and made fatal selection errors.

Morne Morkel was mostly brilliant, Umesh Yadav continued to bowl fast and take wickets without breaking down and Pietersen displayed consistency, ability and passion. David Warner was just a notch below Kevin Pietersen: he could be as explosive, but never seemed as solid.

Player's Name	Team	From	Runs	Strike Rate	Bat Pts	W	Eco	Bowl Pts	Field Pts	M	MVPI	Money Offered (US $)	PVI ($ per run)
Virender Sehwag	DD	IND	495	161.2	580.7	0	11.3	-13.0	44	16	612	1800000	2943
Morne Morkel	DD	SA	3	60.0	-0.7	25	7.2	451.0	4	16	454	475000	1045
Umesh Yadav	DD	IND	2	28.6	-5.3	19	7.4	340.0	24	17	359	750000	2091
Kevin Pietersen	DD	ENG	305	147.3	334.0	0	8.8	-5.0	28	8	357	650000	1024
David Warner	DD	AUS	256	164.1	304.0	0	-	0.0	12	8	316	750000	1187

Disappointing

Why is Irfan Pathan in this list? Because given the number of opportunities he got, and his expensive price tag, he should have done much more: he didn't get enough wickets, was often expensive and chose the wrong day to get injured.

Mahela Jayawardene looked good, but couldn't finish things off, Ross Taylor got more chances than he deserved and Venugopal Rao never seemed capable of rising to the occasion; at $7000 per run he was also rather expensive.

Player's Name	Team	From	Runs	Strike Rate	Bat Pts	W	Eco	Bowl Pts	Field Pts	M	MVPI	Money Offered (US $)	PVI ($ per run)
Irfan Pathan	DD	IND	176	139.7	184.0	8	7.8	143.0	40	17	367	1900000	5177
M Jayawardene	DD	SL	335	112.4	272.7	0	-	0.0	40	16	313	1400000	3918
Ross Taylor	DD	NZ	197	115.2	166.0	0	-	0.0	12	12	178	1000000	4565
Venugopal Rao	DD	IND	132	104.8	96.0	0	13.0	-10.0	16	10	102	700000	6863

Invisible

Roelof van der Merwe, Aaron Finch were almost invisible and Travis Birt and Colin Ingram were completely invisible. The experienced Ajit Agarkar might have been a better choice than the erratic Varun Aaron in the crucial matches.

Chennai Super Kings (played 19, won 10, lost 8, no result 1)

Impressive

Dwayne Bravo had his best IPL year: lot of runs, a very good strike rate and plenty of wickets too and at less than $300 per run. Suresh Raina seemed jaded initially but recovered later; but this was his poorest IPL.

Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was his usual unhurried self (some of us thought he delayed matters a bit too much), but performed when he had to. Faf du Plassis offered incredible value at $284 per run and Michael Hussey's arrival steadied the rocking CSK ship.

Player's Name	Team	From	Runs	Strike Rate	Bat Pts	W	Eco	Bowl Pts	Field Pts	M	MVPI	Money Offered (US $)	PVI ($ per run)
Dwayne Bravo	CSK	WI	371	140.5	390.0	15	8.0	239.3	68	18	697	200000	287
Suresh Raina	CSK	IND	441	135.7	448.7	2	7.5	39.0	40	18	528	1300000	2464
MS Dhoni	CSK	IND	358	128.8	345.3	0	-	0.0	104	18	449	1800000	4006
Faf du Plessis	CSK	SA	398	130.9	390.7	0	16.0	-8.0	40	12	423	120000	284
Michael Hussey	CSK	AUS	261	110.6	207.3	0	-	0.0	8	8	215	425000	863

Disappointing

It is fashionable to say that Ravindra Jadeja is over-valued, but that is indeed a good approximation to the truth. Players like Jadeja (and Robin Uthappa) always seem to do enough to stay in the reckoning, but never enough to win. Murali Vijay was a victim of bad form and came good only at the very end.

Subramaniam Badrinath never looked like a game-changer and seemed highly over-priced. Doug Bollinger surrendered his opening bowler's place to compatriot Ben Hilfenhaus after a very indifferent IPL5.

Player's Name	Team	From	Runs	Strike Rate	Bat Pts	W	Eco	Bowl Pts	Field Pts	M	MVPI	Money Offered (US $)	PVI ($ per run)
Ravindra Jadeja	CSK	IND	191	126.5	180.7	12	7.8	199.0	28	18	408	2000000	4906
Murali Vijay	CSK	IND	336	125.8	316.0	0	-	0.0	24	14	340	900000	2647
S Badrinath	CSK	IND	196	108.3	150.7	0	-	0.0	4	14	155	850000	5496
Doug Bollinger	CSK	AUS	3	60.0	-0.7	8	8.7	115.0	24	6	138	700000	5060

Invisible

George Bailey (Australia's current T20 captain!), Scott Styris and Suraj Randiv didn't play a single match (Randiv didn't play even against Sehwag!). The talented Wriddhiman Saha also appeared far too intermittently.

Kolkata Knight Riders (played 18, won 12, lost 5, no result 1)

Impressive

Besides being the winning captain, Gautam Gambhir scored a lot of runs at an excellent strike rate (after this performance he should be the front-runner for the India vice-captain position, ahead of Virat Kohli). Jacques Kallis scored a lot of runs and took a lot of wickets (although his strike and economy rates betray either an ageing player or a test player of the highest pedigree).

Sunil Narine's mystery endured right through; he took the most wickets at the best economy rate! Shakib-Al-Hasan displayed cool and Manvinder Bisla had to make it to this list after helping his team win the big final!

Player's Name	Team	From	Runs	Strike Rate	Bat Pts	W	Eco	Bowl Pts	Field Pts	M	MVPI	Money Offered (US $)	PVI ($ per run)
Gautam Gambhir	KKR	IND	590	143.6	632.0	0	-	0.0	56	17	688	2400000	3488
Jacques Kallis	KKR	SA	409	106.5	306.0	15	7.5	269.0	16	17	591	1100000	1861
Sunil Narine	KKR	WI	9	128.6	8.7	24	5.5	533.3	12	15	554	700000	1264
Shakib Al Hasan	KKR	BAN	91	123.0	83.3	12	6.5	237.0	0	8	320	425000	1327
Manvinder Bisla	KKR	IND	213	133.1	212.7	0	-	0.0	40	7	253	66000	261

Disappointing

Brendon McCullum's strike rate dropped; it is hard to believe that the same batsman ushered in the inaugural IPL game with such ferocity and skill! Brett Lee is fading; not enough wickets and an unacceptably high economy rate!

And what is one to say of the collapse of Yusuf Pathan's form? Surely he can no longer tell Shahrukh Khan Main Hoon Na (I am there too)? At over $9000 per run Yusuf appears to be an unaffordable luxury at most times.

Player's Name	Team	From	Runs	Strike Rate	Bat Pts	W	Eco	Bowl Pts	Field Pts	M	MVPI	Money Offered (US $)	PVI ($ per run)
Brendon McCullum	KKR	NZ	289	102.1	200.7	0	-	0.0	92	12	293	900000	3075
Yusuf Pathan	KKR	IND	194	114.8	162.7	3	8.3	42.0	28	17	233	2100000	9026
Brett Lee	KKR	AUS	42	210.0	57.3	7	7.9	117.0	24	10	198	400000	2017

Invisible

Ryan ten Doeschate hardly got an outing, Marchant de Lange too mostly warmed the bench. Eoin Morgan reached every corner of India except the playing field. And Shami Ahmed was invisibly imbibing the KKR winning spirit; he's just played a fine role in India A's win over West Indies A in the first unofficial Test match in Barbados.