MVP Day 18: Matthew Hayden still on top

Matthew Hayden continues to be the most valuable player (MVP) after Day 18 of the 2007 World Cup; and, given that he can feast on Bangladesh's bowling on Day 19, there's a good chance that he'll stay up there.

After his 43 runs and 4 wickets against Ireland, Flintoff breaks into the top 10. He could even have been a few positions higher if he had batted more aggressively and bowled more economically. Collingwood has climbed to the 13th place after his rapid 90 and 1 wicket.

There's only one West Indian (Powell, 19) in the top 20 and Lara is at 23. So it's not looking too good for the West Indies.

Rank	Country	Player	Runs	Balls	Ct\| St	Rc	Bb	W	Run Out	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	Eng	Andrew Flintoff	43	63	2	60	97	4	0	2	159.2	79.6
9	SL	Lasith Malinga	0	2	0	81	92	7	0	2	159	79.5
10	SA	Graeme Smith	133	134	0	30	30	0	0	2	152.8	76.4
11	SA	Jacques Kallis	134	173	2	90	90	1	0	2	145.6	72.8
12	SL	Muttiah Muralitharan	1	1	1	49	114	4	0	2	144.4	72.2
13	Eng	Paul Collingwood	121	136	0	58	54	1	0	2	142.4	71.2
14	SA	AB De Villiers	92	75	2				0	2	134	67.0
15	SL	Kumar Sangakkara (wk)	84	93	3\| 2				0	2	128.6	64.3
16	Aus	Brad Hogg	5	6	0	117	120	6	0	2	128.2	64.1
17	SA	Charles Langeveldt	1	15	0	121	120	6	0.5	2	121	60.5
18	Aus	Shane Watson	47	35	1	77	90	1	1	2	114.0	57.0
19	WI	Daren Powell	5	10	0	116	174	6	0	3	169.2	56.4
20	SL	Tillakaratne Dilshan	58	76	1	21	30	1	1	2	111.2	55.6
21	Eng	Kevin Pietersen	108	139	0	2	6	0	0	2	107.6	53.8
22	Ire	Trent Johnston	27	21	0	70	60	1	0.5	1	51.2	51.2
23	WI	Brian Lara	114	132	1				1	3	151.4	50.5
24	Eng	Paul Nixon (wk)	61	56	2\| 1				0	2	97.2	48.6
25	Ire	Kyle McCallan	25	30	0	73	120	2	0	2	97	48.5
26	Aus	Nathan Bracken	0	0	0	65	108	3	0	2	93.4	46.7
27	Eng	Liam Plunkett	29	34	0	43	42	1	0	1	45.4	45.4
28	Eng	Monty Panesar	0	0	0	78	120	3	0	2	90	45.0
29	SL	Chaminda Vaas	0	1	0	42	102	2	0	2	86.8	43.4
30	Aus	Glenn McGrath	0	0	0	93	102	4	0	2	84.6	42.3
31	WI	Ian Bradshaw	0	0	0	27	54	1	0	1	40.2	40.2
32	Ban	Mohammad Ashraful	45	63	0				0	1	39.6	39.6
33	SA	Herschelle Gibbs	48	70	3				1	2	79	39.5
34	SA	Andre Hall	8	13	0	93	117	3	0	2	78.2	39.1
35	WI	Chris Gayle	64	93	1	87	122	2	0	3	117.2	39.1
36	Aus	Adam Gilchrist (wk)	49	51	2\| 1				0	2	77.2	38.6
37	Aus	Shaun Tait	0	0	0	104	105	4	0	2	76.0	38.0
38	WI	Denesh Ramdin (wk)	67	65	6\| 0				0	3	112.0	37.3
39	Ire	Niall O'Brien (wk)	74	107	2\| 0				0	2	72.4	36.2
40	Ire	Andrew White	56	64	1	21	19	0	0.5	2	72	36.0
41	WI	Dwayne Bravo	27	40	0	116	132	4	0	3	107.6	35.9
42	SA	Makhaya Ntini	7	9	1	94	102	3	0	2	71.4	35.7
43	NZ	Daniel Vettori	0	0	0	92	114	3	0	2	71.2	35.6
44	Eng	James Anderson	0	0	0	74	90	3	0	2	70	35
45	SL	Russel Arnold	55	78	0	17	19	1	0	2	69.8	34.9
46	WI	Shivnarine Chanderpaul	111	153	0				0	3	99.6	33.2
47	SL	Chamara Silva	61	75	0				0	2	62.0	31.0
48	SL	Mahela Jayawardene	58	101	0				1	2	59.2	29.6
49	Eng	Sajid Mahmood	0	0	0	34	48	0	1	1	28.4	28.4
50	WI	Marlon Samuels	40	57	1	81	84	1	1	3	73.6	24.5
51	Ban	Mohammad Rafique	7	17	0	48	60	1	0	1	24.4	24.4
52	NZ	Craig McMillan	60	91	0				0	2	47.2	23.6
53	SL	Upul Tharanga	38	50	2				0	2	46	23.0
54	Eng	Michael Vaughan	32	65	0	34	54	1	0	2	45.2	22.6
55	Aus	Andrew Symonds	31	31	1	51	36	1	0	2	44.0	22
56	NZ	Stephen Fleming	52	77	0				0	2	42.4	21.2
57	Ban	Aftab Ahmed	12	16	2				0	1	21.2	21.2
58	Eng	Ravinder Bopara	10	5	1				0	1	21.0	21
59	Ire	Boyd Rankin	4	8	0	66	72	2	0	2	41.2	20.6
60	Ire	Dave Langford-Smith	9	9	0	71	96	1	0	2	40.6	20.3
61	NZ	Brendon McCullum (wk)	0	0	8\| 0				0	2	40	20.0
62	NZ	James Franklin	0	0	1	72	72	2	0	2	38.6	19.3
63	SA	Mark Boucher (wk)	22	27	2\| 0				0	2	32.4	16.2
64	WI	Ramnaresh Sarwan	84	156	1	5	6	0	0	3	48	16.0
65	SL	Farveez Maharoof	5	9	1	67	84	1	0	2	32	16.0
66	Ban	Saqibul Hasan	4	20	0	49	60	1	0	1	15	15.0
67	Ire	Kevin O'Brien	29	65	1	39	42	1	0	2	29.6	14.8
68	NZ	Michael Mason	0	0	0	14	36	0	0	1	14.8	14.8
69	Ban	Syed Rasel	0	1	0	58	60	1	0	1	13.2	13.2
70	Ire	Andre Botha	46	95	0	91	96	1	0	2	25.8	12.9
71	WI	Lendl Simmons	14	26	1				0	1	12.2	12.2
72	Ire	Jeremy Bray	41	73	0				0	2	23.6	11.8
73	NZ	Hamish Marshall	15	23	0				0	1	11.6	11.6
74	Ban	Tamim Iqbal	6	7	1				0	1	11.4	11.4
75	WI	Dwayne Smith	17	13	0	24	30	0	0	3	23.6	7.9
76	Ire	Eoin Morgan	20	41	1				0	2	12.2	6.1
77	WI	Jerome Taylor	10	18	0	104	108	1	0	2	12	6.0
78	Aus	Michael Hussey	14	21	0				0	2	11.2	5.6
79	Ire	William Porterfield	31	70	1				0	2	11	5.5
80	SA	Shaun Pollock	20	31	0	129	108	0	1.5	2	8.6	4.3
81	SA	Robin Petersen	4	8	0	22	30	0	0	1	3.6	3.6
82	Ban	Habibul Bashar	18	47	1				0	1	3.4	3.4
83	SA	Justin Kemp	6	22	2				0	2	4.4	2.2
84	Eng	Ian Bell	36	93	1				0	2	2.6	1.3
85	Eng	Ed Joyce	1	7	1				0	2	1.4	0.7
86	SA	Ashwell Prince	1	3	0				0	1	-0.4	-0.4
87	NZ	Ross Taylor	0	1	0				0	1	-0.8	-0.8
88	NZ	Peter Fulton	0	2	0				0	1	-1.6	-1.6
89	Ban	Shahriar Nafees	0	3	0				0	1	-2.4	-2.4
90	NZ	Jeetan Patel	0	0	0	42	48	0	0	1	-3.6	-3.6
91	Ire	John Mooney	0	1	0	22	24	0	0	1	-3.6	-3.6
92	NZ	Lou Vincent	0	6	0				0	1	-4.8	-4.8
93	WI	Corey Collymore	1	7	0	99	114	0	0	2	-11.4	-5.7
94	Eng	Jamie Dalrymple	3	12	1	29	24	0	0	1	-8.4	-8.4
95	Ban	Mushfiqur Rahim (wk)	6	33	0\| 0				0	1	-14.4	-14.4
96	Ban	Mashrafe Mortaza	7	14	0	66	60	0	0	1	-15.2	-15.2
97	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 Chernoff gallery of the top nine Super Eight players after Day 17 appears below:

We've made the Chernoff faces more informative by adding information about total runs scored / scoring rate and number of wickets / economy rate.

So Scott Styris, for example, has scored 167 runs in the Super Eight phase at a strike rate of 82.3 and taken 3 wickets conceding 3.5 runs per over.

Also recall that pure batsmen have rounded, smiling faces with wide noses; batting all-rounders have rounded faces with a taller nose and bigger ears, while bowlers have tapered faces with tall, thin noses and big ears.

Here are the faces of the nine highest scoring batsmen in the Super Eight. If two players have scored the same number of runs, the player with the higher scoring rate appears first.

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

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

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

Finally, the chart showing the average points obtained by players of the same country, shows Australia and Sri Lanka looking better than the others at this stage. The chart also suggests that, after Day 17, Australia, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and South Africa appear 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.