Gayle leads MVP race, de Villiers not far behind

Chris Gayle has blasted his way to the top Rediff.com's Most Valuable Players ratings for the World Cup with his Royal Challengers team-mate South African A B de Villiers close on his heels. Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji present the updated MVP rankings!

This can't be a surprise -- after their thundering knocks Chris Gayle and A B de Villiers have raced to the two top positions in the Most Valuable Player Index, MVPI, at the ongoing ICC World Cup.

MVPI collapses a player's batting + bowling + fielding performance into a single 'run equivalent'.

So, Gayle's 258 runs, including the first-ever double century in a World Cup, coupled with his five wickets and three catches is equivalent to a batsman having scored 457 'runs'.

South Africa Captain de Villiers, who smashed a record 162 from 66 balls

The MVPI formula picks out batsmen who score a lot of runs at a high strike rate; bowlers who take a lot of wickets at a low economy rate and fielders who take the most catches or participate in the most run out dismissals.

It does not award any points for good captaincy, or for good wicket-keeping (although wicket-keepers do gain an advantage because they participate in many more dismissals).

With four consecutive victories, including the thrilling one-wicket win against Australia in Auckland on February 28, New Zealand players continue to dominate the table.

Kiwi pacer Tim Southee with the World Cup's highest haul of 13 wickets, and Captain Brendon McCullum with 207 runs at an astonishing strike rate of 188.2 are respectively ranked third and fourth.

India has three big wins, yet no player is really standing out. India opener Shikhar Dhawan (MVPI of 264 and rank 8) is the top ranked Indian player, followed by off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin (240; 12), in-form batsman Virat Kohli (193; 24) and pacer Mohammed Shami (182; 28).

There is only one Australian player -- left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc (223; 18), in the top 20, but this is partly because of the abandoned game against Bangladesh because of rain. Opener Aaron Finch (191; 25) is the only other Australian player in the top 30.

You have to really scroll down the table to spot players from England or Pakistan. Only all-rounder Moeen Ali (242; 13) and pace bowler Chris Woakes (163; 34) are in the top 40.

And incredibly enough, no Pakistan player is in the top 50 and just three players figure in the top 100.

Table: Most valuable players so far in 2015 World Cup (after 21 matches, as on midnight of February 28, 2015):

Team ' Runs (scored) ' 4s ' 6s ' Strike rate ' W: Wickets taken ' Eco: Economy rate 'Ct St: Catches, stumpings ' Run outs ' M: Matches played ' MVPI: Most valuable player index = 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.

But it is important that this is a long World Cup (some might argue that it is unnecessarily long) and the first few weeks are largely inconsequential.

So, you can expect many more twists and turns when we head into the knockout rounds, starting with the quarter-finals in a couple of weeks.

Earlier...Southee leads World Cup MVP race. Dhawan 4th

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