Southee leads World Cup MVP race, India's Dhawan fourth

Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji are back with Rediff.com's Most Valuable Players ratings for the ongoing ICC World Cup.

Tim Southee

Image: New Zealand fast bowler Tim Southee. Photograph: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images

The 2015 ICC World Cup is just over a week old, but already we have witnessed some outstanding performances and also a few shocking failures.

New Zealand pacer Tim Southee, who claimed a career-best 7-33 against England, is currently this World Cup's most valuable player (MVP) with a most valuable player index (MVPI) of 299.

In fact, New Zealand hold four of the top five places on the table right now and that is also partly because they have played three matches so far.

The co-hosts have been in red hot form in the tournament with a hat-trick of victories against Sri Lanka, Scotland and England respectively to sit on top of Pool A with an amazing net run rate of +3.58.

Opener Shikhar Dhawan, who hit a fifty against Pakistan followed by a match-winning century against South Africa (Rank 4; MVPI 245) is India's MVP followed by pace bowler Mohammed Shami (9; 182), who finally seems to have regained his form in Australia.

Pakistan have so far struggled to get going in the tournament, losing its first two games to India and the West Indies. Their best ranked player in the table is Sohail Khan (25; 123), followed by captain Misbah-ul-Haq (30; 114).

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

Although Southee hasn't scored a single run so far, MVPI judges his contribution so far to be equivalent to a batsman having scored 299 'runs'.

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).

Table: Most valuable players at the 2015 World Cup (after 13 matches, as on midnight of February 22, 2015):

Rank	Player	Team	Runs	4s	6s	Strike Rate	W	Eco	Ct St	Run Outs	M	MVPI
1	Tim Southee	NZ	0	0	0	0.0	11	4.1	0	0	3	299
2	Corey Anderson	NZ	86	9	2	138.7	5	4.3	0	0	3	252
3	Brendon McCullum	NZ	157	21	8	182.6	0	0.0	1	0	3	247
4	Shikhar Dhawan	IND	210	23	3	94.6	0	0.0	2	0	2	245
5	Daniel Vettori	NZ	8	1	0	200.0	6	3.0	4	0	3	232
6	David Miller	SA	160	9	9	139.1	0	0.0	0	0	2	224
7	Andre Russell	WI	69	6	5	265.4	3	4.7	1	0	2	200
8	Lendl Simmons	WI	152	13	7	116.9	0	12.0	1	0	2	194
9	Mohammed Shami	IND	7	1	0	87.5	6	3.8	1	0	2	182
10	Aaron Finch	AUS	135	12	3	105.5	0	0.0	1	0	1	168
11	Jean-Paul Duminy	SA	121	9	3	105.2	1	5.6	1	0	2	167
12	Darren Sammy	WI	119	12	5	125.3	1	6.5	0	0	2	167
13	Mitchell Marsh	AUS	23	3	0	115.0	5	3.7	0	0	1	166
14	Virat Kohli	IND	153	11	0	82.3	0	0.0	2	0	2	161
15	Sean Williams	ZIM	84	8	1	107.7	2	5.4	1	0	2	151
16	Angelo Mathews	SL	90	7	0	67.7	3	5.3	1	0	2	145
17	Jerome Taylor	WI	0	0	0	0.0	6	5.4	0	0	2	143
18	AB de Villiers	SA	55	4	1	74.3	0	0.0	3	3	2	138
19	Trent Boult	NZ	0	0	0	0.0	5	4.5	0	0	3	138
20	Shakib Al Hasan	BAN	63	6	1	123.5	2	4.9	0	0	1	135
21	Mohit Sharma	IND	0	0	0	0.0	4	4.1	0	0.5	2	127
22	Mashrafe Mortaza	BAN	14	3	0	155.6	3	2.2	1	0	1	126
23	Suresh Raina	IND	80	6	3	131.1	0	4.5	3	0	2	125
24	Imran Tahir	SA	8	1	0	80.0	4	4.2	0	0	2	124
25	Sohail Khan	PAK	8	1	0	44.4	6	6.4	0	0	2	123
26	Mushfiqur Rahim	BAN	71	6	1	126.8	0	0.0	0	1	1	120
27	James Taylor	ENG	98	11	2	106.5	0	0.0	0	0	2	119
28	Brendan Taylor	ZIM	87	9	2	103.6	0	0.0	3	0	2	119
29	R Ashwin	IND	6	0	0	100.0	4	4.6	0	0	2	115
30	Misbah-ul-Haq	PAK	83	10	1	79.0	0	0.0	2	1	2	114
31	Ed Joyce	IRL	84	10	2	125.4	0	0.0	0	0	1	112
32	Ajinkya Rahane	IND	79	7	3	129.5	0	0.0	1	0	2	112
33	Suranga Lakmal	SL	7	0	0	41.2	4	4.9	2	0	2	112
34	Paul Stirling	IRL	92	9	3	109.5	0	5.5	0	0	1	111
35	Glenn Maxwell	AUS	66	11	0	165.0	0	8.3	0	1	1	111
36	Mirwais Ashraf	AFG	38	1	3	80.9	2	3.7	0	0	2	110
37	Hamid Hassan	AFG	0	0	0	0.0	5	5.6	0	0	2	109
38	Niall O'Brien	IRL	79	11	0	131.7	0	0.0	0	0	1	108
39	Mohammad Nabi	AFG	65	7	1	92.9	1	6.0	0	1	2	107
40	Chris Woakes	ENG	38	2	0	86.4	3	5.6	0	0	2	106
41	Kane Williamson	NZ	104	12	1	78.8	0	7.0	1	0	3	101
42	Thisara Perera	SL	47	6	1	180.8	1	5.4	1	0	1	98
43	M Jayawardene	SL	100	8	1	80.6	0	0.0	0	0	2	97
44	Shapoor Zadran	AFG	3	0	0	100.0	3	4.0	0	0	2	96
45	Martin Guptill	NZ	88	12	0	89.8	0	0.0	0	0	3	94
46	H Masakadza	ZIM	81	8	2	103.8	0	7.5	0	0	2	92
47	Shaiman Anwar	UAE	67	9	1	134.0	0	0.0	0	0	1	92
48	MS Dhoni	IND	36	4	1	150.0	0	0.0	3	1	2	92
49	Tendai Chatara	ZIM	6	1	0	54.5	4	5.7	0	0	2	90
50	Lahiru Thirimanne	SL	65	8	0	106.6	0	0.0	2	0	2	89
51	Morne Morkel	SA	2	0	0	40.0	4	5.9	1	0	2	89
52	Denesh Ramdin	WI	52	7	0	106.1	0	0.0	5	0	2	88
53	Luke Ronchi	NZ	41	6	0	141.4	0	0.0	6	0	3	88
54	Adam Milne	NZ	1	0	0	33.3	3	5.1	3	0	3	88
55	Rangana Herath	SL	13	2	0	68.4	2	4.1	2	0	2	87
56	George Dockrell	IRL	0	0	0	0.0	3	5.0	2	0	1	85
57	Umar Akmal	PAK	59	5	1	78.7	0	0.0	0	1	2	81
58	Craig Ervine	ZIM	55	2	3	103.8	0	0.0	3	0	2	81
59	Jeevan Mendis	SL	13	1	0	61.9	2	3.6	3	0	2	81
60	Faf du Plessis	SA	79	5	1	76.7	0	0.0	1	0	2	77
61	Josh Davey	SCOT	11	1	0	57.9	3	5.7	0	0	1	76
62	Iain Wardlaw	SCOT	0	0	0	0.0	3	5.8	1	0	1	71
63	Grant Elliott	NZ	58	7	0	89.2	0	5.5	2	0	3	70
64	Dwayne Smith	WI	41	7	0	80.4	0	0.0	1	1	2	70
65	Umesh Yadav	IND	0	0	0	0.0	2	5.3	2	0.5	2	69
66	Haris Sohail	PAK	36	3	0	66.7	2	6.8	2	0	2	64
67	Vernon Philander	SA	0	0	0	0.0	2	4.1	1	0	2	64
68	Marlon Samuels	WI	59	5	1	63.4	1	6.3	0	0	2	61
69	Sulieman Benn	WI	0	0	0	0.0	2	4.3	1	0	1	61
70	Chamu Chibhabha	ZIM	64	10	0	78.0	0	0.0	0	0	1	60
71	Kumar Sangakkara	SL	46	6	0	90.2	0	0.0	2	0	2	60
72	Brad Haddin	AUS	31	5	0	221.4	0	0.0	2	0	1	60
73	George Bailey	AUS	55	3	0	79.7	0	0.0	1	0	1	58
74	Aftab Alam	AFG	14	2	1	116.7	2	6.1	0	0	1	58
75	Mitchell Johnson	AUS	0	0	0	0.0	2	4.5	1	0	1	58
76	Shahid Afridi	PAK	50	5	1	104.2	0	5.4	1	0	2	57
77	Ravindra Jadeja	IND	5	0	0	55.6	2	5.1	1	0	2	56
78	Asghar Stanikzai	AFG	55	5	1	85.9	0	7.2	0	0	2	55
79	Sikandar Raza	ZIM	51	7	1	89.5	0	5.0	0	0	2	55
80	Soumya Sarkar	BAN	28	3	1	112.0	0	4.3	1	0.5	1	55
81	Amjad Javed	UAE	25	3	1	131.6	1	5.4	0	0	1	55
82	Steven Finn	ENG	1	0	0	7.1	5	10.0	0	0	2	55
83	Solomon Mire	ZIM	36	3	2	76.6	2	7.1	0	0	2	53
84	Mitchell Starc	AUS	0	0	0	0.0	2	5.2	1	0	1	53
85	Andy McBrine	IRL	0	0	0	0.0	0	2.6	0	1	1	49
86	Chris Gayle	WI	40	3	1	50.6	1	5.1	2	0	2	48
87	Lasith Malinga	SL	0	0	0	0.0	3	6.4	0	0	2	48
88	Mahmudullah	BAN	23	0	0	50.0	1	3.9	1	0	1	47
89	Mohd Naveed	UAE	23	1	2	135.3	1	6.0	0	0	1	47
90	Samiullh Shenwari	AFG	80	7	0	55.2	0	4.7	1	0	2	46
91	Matt Machan	SCOT	56	7	1	70.9	0	0.0	0	0	1	46
92	Khurram Khan	UAE	45	6	0	81.8	0	0.0	0	0	1	44
93	Afsar Zazai	AFG	20	1	0	46.5	0	0.0	3	1	2	44
94	Mohammad Tauqir	UAE	0	0	0	0.0	2	5.7	0	0	1	44
95	Darren Bravo	WI	49	3	0	62.8	0	0.0	2	0	2	43
96	Jason Holder	WI	0	0	0	0.0	1	4.2	1	0	2	43
97	Wahab Riaz	PAK	7	1	0	46.7	2	5.8	1	0	2	41
98	Sohaib Maqsood	PAK	50	4	1	73.5	0	8.0	0	0	2	40
99	Elton Chigumbura	ZIM	22	2	1	100.0	1	8.4	1	0	2	39
100	Joe Root	ENG	51	3	0	62.2	0	11.0	2	0	2	38

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.

We will publish the MVP tables throughout the World Cup. It would be interesting to speculate who might be this World Cup's most valuable player.

In 2011, it was Sri Lankan opener Tillakaratne Dilshan, with Pakistan's Shahid Afridi and India left-hander Yuvraj Singh just behind him.

In 2007 it was Australia's dashing opener Matthew Hayden followed by New Zealand all-rounder Scott Styris and Sri Lanka's dangerous opener Sanath Jayasuriya.

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