MVP Day 17: Hayden will be hard to dislodge

The most valuable player (MVP) has the largest average total of batting, bowling and fielding points among all players. An allrounder who can gain both batting and bowling points is therefore much more likely to emerge as the MVP.

It would require an incredibly powerful performance to become the MVP based on batting points alone; that's why what Australia's Matthew Hayden has achieved so far in the Super Eight matches is truly amazing.

New Zealand's Scott Styris is however the chhupa rustam (dark horse) in this World Cup so far; he has been consistently in the top five of the MVP rankings so far. Even yesterday he had a great game against the West Indies.

It's disappointing to see South Africa's Shaun Pollock at the 74th position.

Rank	Country	Player	Runs	Balls	Ct\| St	Rc	Bb	W	RunOut	M	Total	AVG
1	Aus	Matthew Hayden	259	211	1				0	2	354.2	177.1
2	NZ	Scott Styris	167	203	2	60	102	3	0	2	275.2	137.6
3	SL	Sanath Jayasuriya	135	114	1	36	71	1	0	2	228.6	114.3
4	NZ	Jacob Oram	63	83	1	48	84	4	0	2	179.8	89.9
5	Aus	Michael Clarke	133	122	1				0	2	173.4	86.7
6	Aus	Ricky Ponting	126	127	2				0	2	160.4	80.2
7	NZ	Shane Bond	0	0	0	50	112	5	0	2	159.6	79.8
8	SL	Lasith Malinga	0	2	0	81	92	7	0	2	159	79.5
9	SA	Graeme Smith	133	134	0	30	30	0	0	2	152.8	76.4
10	SA	Jacques Kallis	134	173	2	90	90	1	0	2	145.6	72.8
11	SL	Muttiah Muralitharan	1	1	1	49	114	4	0	2	144.4	72.2
12	SA	AB De Villiers	92	75	2				0	2	134	67.0
13	SL	Kumar Sangakkara (wk)	84	93	3\| 2				0	2	128.6	64.3
14	Aus	Brad Hogg	5	6	0	117	120	6	0	2	128.2	64.1
15	SA	Charles Langeveldt	1	15	0	121	120	6	0.5	2	121	60.5
16	Ire	Kyle McCallan	20	24	0	35	60	1	0	1	57.8	57.8
17	Aus	Shane Watson	47	35	1	77	90	1	1	2	114	57.0
18	WI	Daren Powell	5	10	0	116	174	6	0	3	169.2	56.4
19	Eng	Paul Nixon (wk)	42	41	1\| 0				0	1	56.2	56.2
20	SL	Tillakaratne Dilshan	58	76	1	21	30	1	1	2	111.2	55.6
21	WI	Brian Lara	114	132	1				1	3	151.4	50.5
22	Eng	Kevin Pietersen	60	92	0	2	6	0	0	1	49.2	49.2
23	Eng	James Anderson	0	0	0	39	48	2	0	1	47.4	47.4
24	Aus	Nathan Bracken	0	0	0	65	108	3	0	2	93.4	46.7
25	Eng	Liam Plunkett	29	34	0	43	42	1	0	1	45.4	45.4
26	Ire	Dave Langford-Smith	8	7	0	33	54	1	0	1	44.6	44.6
27	SL	Chaminda Vaas	0	1	0	42	102	2	0	2	86.8	43.4
28	Aus	Glenn McGrath	0	0	0	93	102	4	0	2	84.6	42.3
29	WI	Ian Bradshaw	0	0	0	27	54	1	0	1	40.2	40.2
30	Ban	Mohammad Ashraful	45	63	0				0	1	39.6	39.6
31	SA	Herschelle Gibbs	48	70	3				1	2	79	39.5
32	SA	Andre Hall	8	13	0	93	117	3	0	2	78.2	39.1
33	WI	Chris Gayle	64	93	1	87	122	2	0	3	117.2	39.1
34	Aus	Adam Gilchrist (wk)	49	51	2\| 1				0	2	77.2	38.6
35	Aus	Shaun Tait	0	0	0	104	105	4	0	2	76	38.0
36	WI	Denesh Ramdin (wk)	67	65	6\| 0				0	3	112	37.3
37	WI	Dwayne Bravo	27	40	0	116	132	4	0	3	107.6	35.9
38	SA	Makhaya Ntini	7	9	1	94	102	3	0	2	71.4	35.7
39	NZ	Daniel Vettori	0	0	0	92	114	3	0	2	71.2	35.6
40	SL	Russel Arnold	55	78	0	17	19	1	0	2	69.8	34.9
41	WI	Shivnarine Chanderpaul	111	153	0				0	3	99.6	33.2
42	SL	Chamara Silva	61	75	0				0	2	62	31.0
43	SL	Mahela Jayawardene	58	101	0				1	2	59.2	29.6
44	Eng	Andrew Flintoff	0	1	1	17	48	0	0	1	25.6	25.6
45	Eng	Monty Panesar	0	0	0	47	60	1	0	1	25	25
46	WI	Marlon Samuels	40	57	1	81	84	1	1	3	73.6	24.5
47	Ire	Jeremy Bray	41	72	0				0	1	24.4	24.4
48	Ban	Mohammad Rafique	7	17	0	48	60	1	0	1	24.4	24.4
49	NZ	Craig McMillan	60	91	0				0	2	47.2	23.6
50	SL	Upul Tharanga	38	50	2				0	2	46	23
51	Aus	Andrew Symonds	31	31	1	51	36	1	0	2	44	22.0
52	NZ	Stephen Fleming	52	77	0				0	2	42.4	21.2
53	Ban	Aftab Ahmed	12	16	2				0	1	21.2	21.2
54	NZ	Brendon McCullum (wk)	0	0	8\| 0				0	2	40	20.0
55	NZ	James Franklin	0	0	1	72	72	2	0	2	38.6	19.3
56	SA	Mark Boucher (wk)	22	27	2\| 0				0	2	32.4	16.2
57	WI	Ramnaresh Sarwan	84	156	1	5	6	0	0	3	48	16.0
58	SL	Farveez Maharoof	5	9	1	67	84	1	0	2	32	16.0
59	Ban	Saqibul Hasan	4	20	0	49	60	1	0	1	15	15.0
60	NZ	Michael Mason	0	0	0	14	36	0	0	1	14.8	14.8
61	Eng	Paul Collingwood	31	54	0	20	18	0	0	1	13.2	13.2
62	Ban	Syed Rasel	0	1	0	58	60	1	0	1	13.2	13.2
63	WI	Lendl Simmons	14	26	1				0	1	12.2	12.2
64	NZ	Hamish Marshall	15	23	0				0	1	11.6	11.6
65	Ban	Tamim Iqbal	6	7	1				0	1	11.4	11.4
66	Eng	Michael Vaughan	26	52	0				0	1	10.4	10.4
67	Ire	Andrew White	18	29	1	13	7	0	0	1	10.4	10.4
68	Ire	Eoin Morgan	18	34	0				0	1	8.8	8.8
69	WI	Dwayne Smith	17	13	0	24	30	0	0	3	23.6	7.9
70	Ire	Niall O'Brien (wk)	11	19	0\| 0				0	1	6.8	6.8
71	WI	Jerome Taylor	10	18	0	104	108	1	0	2	12	6.0
72	Aus	Michael Hussey	14	21	0				0	2	11.2	5.6
73	Ire	Andre Botha	28	56	0	35	36	0	0	1	5	5.0
74	SA	Shaun Pollock	20	31	0	129	108	0	1.5	2	8.6	4.3
75	Ire	Kevin O'Brien	17	46	1	13	18	0	0	1	3.6	3.6
76	SA	Robin Petersen	4	8	0	22	30	0	0	1	3.6	3.6
77	Ban	Habibul Bashar	18	47	1				0	1	3.4	3.4
78	Eng	Ed Joyce	0	2	1				0	1	3.4	3.4
79	SA	Justin Kemp	6	22	2				0	2	4.4	2.2
80	SA	Ashwell Prince	1	3	0				0	1	-0.4	-0.4
81	NZ	Ross Taylor	0	1	0				0	1	-0.8	-0.8
82	Ire	William Porterfield	0	2	0				0	1	-1.6	-1.6
83	NZ	Peter Fulton	0	2	0				0	1	-1.6	-1.6
84	Ban	Shahriar Nafees	0	3	0				0	1	-2.4	-2.4
85	NZ	Jeetan Patel	0	0	0	42	48	0	0	1	-3.6	-3.6
86	Ire	John Mooney	0	1	0	22	24	0	0	1	-3.6	-3.6
87	NZ	Lou Vincent	0	6	0				0	1	-4.8	-4.8
88	Eng	Ian Bell	5	19	0				0	1	-5.2	-5.2
89	WI	Corey Collymore	1	7	0	99	114	0	0	2	-11.4	-5.7
90	Eng	Jamie Dalrymple	3	12	1	29	24	0	0	1	-8.4	-8.4
91	Ire	Boyd Rankin	0	0	0	38	30	0	0	1	-14	-14.0
92	Ban	Mushfiqur Rahim (wk)	6	33	0\| 0				0	1	-14.4	-14.4
93	Ban	Mashrafe Mortaza	7	14	0	66	60	0	0	1	-15.2	-15.2
94	Ban	Abdur Razzak	0	2	0	86	60	1	0	1	-15.6	-15.6

*Run outs are counted as 1 for a direct hit, and 0.5 if the fielder is an equal participant in a run out dismissal.

The top 15 places have been captured by players from only four teams: Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and South Africa. Surely there's some message there.

Here's the Chernoff gallery of the top nine Super Eight players after Day 17:

Recall that pure batsmen have rounded, smiling faces with wide noses; batting allrounders have rounded faces with a taller nose and bigger ears, while bowlers have tapered faces with tall, thin noses and big ears.

The more the batsmen smile, the more runs they have scored (just see "Hayden"'s wide smile).

The bigger the bowler's ears, the more wickets he has taken (see "Malinga").

Here are the faces of the nine highest scoring batsmen in the Super Eight (Lara's eyes are bigger because he ran out Fleming with a direct throw yesterday).

Here are the faces of the nine highest wicket-taking bowlers in the Super Eight.

Finally, take a look at the graph below:

The chart averages the points obtained by players of the same country. It suggests that, at this point, Australia, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and South Africa are favourites to enter the semi-finals.

This list and the Chernoff faces have been prepared by my colleagues Debasish Ghosh and K Anil Kumar of Cranes Software International Limited using the SYSTAT software.