Why Rishabh Pant dominates the IPL MVP standings

Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji identify Rediff.com's Most Valuable Players in IPL 11, after Week 5.

IMAGE: Rishabh Pant celebrates his century against the Sunrisers Hyderabad. Photograph: BCCI

In one of IPL's biggest puzzles, Rishabh Pant of the Delhi Daredevils, who arguably displayed the best exhibition of batting prowess this season, failed to win the Man of the Match award for his awesome 128 not out against the Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Rishabh is, by a margin of over 100 'runs', the most valuable player at this stage of IPL 11 with a Most Valuable Player Index (MVPI) of 702.

MVPI collapses a player's batting, bowling and fielding performance in a unidimensional 'run equivalent'.

MVPI rewards high scores, and rewards more if they are scored with a high strike rate.

Likewise, the MVPI also rewards a high wicket tally, and rewards even more if the economy rate is low.

K L Rahul, the kingpin of the Kings XI Punjab's batting, is second (MVPI: 601), followed by Sunrisers Captain Kane Williamson (543).

Jos Buttler, after his match-winning batting for the Rajasthan Royals on Friday night, is just 4 'runs' behind at 539, and M S Dhoni is fifth with 538 'runs'.

Another interesting metric is the Paisa Vasool Index (PVI) that measures how many dollars the franchise pays a player for every run scored.

Players with high prices tend to have higher PVI values even if they perform well.

Buying a player with a 3-digit PVI would be every franchise owner's dream.

The table below provides all details. 12 out of the top 50 are aged 25 or less and 5 out of the top 50 are aged 35 or more.

Best Performing Players so far at IPL 11

Rank	Player's Name	Team	From	Run	Top Score	4's	6's	Str Rate	W	Eco	M	MVPI	PVI(US$)	Age
1	Rishabh Pant	DD	IND	521	128	56	27	179.7	0	-	11	702	2622	21
2	KL Rahul	KXI	IND	471	95	53	19	156.5	0	-	10	601	2042	26
3	Kane Williamson	SRH	NZ	493	84	41	16	135.4	0	-	11	543	677	28
4	Jos Buttler	RR	ENG	415	95	38	14	149.3	0	-	11	539	1001	28
5	MS Dhoni	CSK	IND	393	79	20	28	163.8	0	-	11	538	3422	37
6	Shane Watson	CSK	AUS	367	106	28	23	153.6	6	9.1	11	503	976	37
7	Ambati Rayudu	CSK	IND	435	82	41	22	151	0	-	11	498	541	33
8	Hardik Pandya	MI	IND	188	50	15	8	129.7	16	8.2	10	482	2801	25
9	Suryakumar Yadav	MI	IND	435	72	50	13	130.2	0	-	11	477	824	28
10	Sunil Narine	KKR	WI	202	50	20	14	168.3	13	7.5	11	472	3251	30
11	Krunal Pandya	MI	IND	189	41	20	8	152.4	11	7.1	11	470	2299	27
12	Virat Kohli	RCB	IND	396	92	37	13	135.2	0	-	10	437	4341	29
13	Shreyas Iyer	DD	IND	354	93	23	21	145.7	0	-	11	408	2105	23
14	Dinesh Karthik	KKR	IND	321	45	33	9	147.9	0	-	11	397	2288	33
15	Sanju Samson	RR	IND	353	92	22	15	137.4	0	-	11	371	2647	23
16	AB de Villiers	RCB	SA	286	90	16	23	174.4	0	-	8	369	3326	34
17	Andre Russell	KKR	WI	218	88	9	23	187.9	7	10	11	369	2828	30
18	Suresh Raina	CSK	IND	313	75	34	9	136.1	0	-	10	363	3719	31
19	Shakib Al Hasan	SRH	BAN	158	35	15	4	117	12	7.5	11	361	679	31
20	Chris Gayle	KXI	WI	311	104	22	25	149.5	0	-	7	349	639	39
21	Shikhar Dhawan	SRH	IND	290	92	38	6	138.1	0	-	10	337	1893	32
22	Ishan Kishan	MI	IND	238	62	20	15	160.8	0	-	11	329	2312	20
23	Rohit Sharma	MI	IND	267	94	24	12	138.3	0	-	11	309	5958	31
24	Nitish Rana	KKR	IND	240	59	21	10	129.7	4	7.5	10	308	1355	24
25	Chris Lynn	KKR	AUS	298	74	37	10	134.2	0	-	11	308	3827	28
26	Mujeeb Ur Rahman	KXI	AFG	10	10	2	0	142.9	14	6.7	10	306	1459	17
27	Gowtham Krishnappa	RR	IND	100	33	8	7	212.8	8	7.6	11	305	2494	19
28	Robin Uthappa	KKR	IND	273	54	25	18	141.5	0	-	11	305	2576	32
29	Andrew Tye	KXI	AUS	18	7	1	0	78.3	16	7.8	10	298	2697	31
30	Evin Lewis	MI	WI	265	65	25	15	135.2	0	-	10	285	1635	26
31	Rashid Khan	SRH	AFG	25	17	1	2	125	13	7.3	11	282	3917	20
32	Karun Nair	KXI	IND	243	50	20	8	130.6	0	-	10	282	2216	26
33	Jasprit Bumrah	MI	IND	10	6	1	0	100	12	6.8	11	265	3241	24
34	Mandeep Singh	RCB	IND	232	47	16	10	143.2	0	-	10	264	590	26
35	Prithvi Shaw	DD	IND	214	65	24	9	163.4	0	-	6	261	563	18
36	Dwayne Bravo	CSK	WI	133	68	8	10	170.5	8	9.9	11	258	3045	35
37	Ajinkya Rahane	RR	IND	243	65	27	4	125.9	0	-	11	253	1941	30
38	Mayank Markande	MI	IND	11	6	1	0	122.2	14	7.8	11	253	96	20
39	Umesh Yadav	RCB	IND	3	1	0	0	30	14	8.1	10	243	1928	30
40	Glenn Maxwell	DD	AUS	142	47	10	9	149.5	5	8.3	10	242	4565	29
41	Quinton de Kock	RCB	SA	201	53	20	8	124.1	0	-	8	234	1334	25
42	Yusuf Pathan	SRH	IND	186	45	15	9	137.8	1	7	11	230	1011	35
43	Siddarth Kaul	SRH	IND	3	2	0	0	21.4	13	7.5	11	226	2062	28
44	Ravindra Jadeja	CSK	IND	59	19	3	2	115.7	7	7.7	11	218	3939	29
45	Ben Stokes	RR	ENG	185	45	13	6	125	3	9	11	215	7137	27
46	Sandeep Sharma	SRH	IND	0	0	0	0	0	7	5.4	7	207	1776	25
47	R Ashwin	KXI	IND	57	33	3	2	121.3	6	7.8	10	196	4326	32
48	Trent Boult	DD	NZ	0	0	0	0	0	13	9.2	11	194	1389	29
49	Manish Pandey	SRH	IND	184	57	13	2	112.2	0	-	11	178	7583	29
50	Mitchell McClenaghan	MI	NZ	0	0	0	0	0	12	8.3	9	177	692	32

All data in our analysis is updated after the 43rd match between the Rajasthan Royals and the Chennai Super Kings on May 11, 2018.

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