Nathan Bracken is still MVP

As the long and arduous Commonwealth Bank Series nears its end, Nathan Bracken leads the list of the most valuable players (MVP). Bracken has taken the largest number of wickets, and at an excellent economy rate.

Gautam Gambhir is India's highest ranked player on the list, and could well have been at the top if he hadn't been needlessly run out in the first final at Sydney.

Australia's James Hopes is surprisingly fourth in the list with a consistent all-round display.

The most likely winner of the MVP crown, and the overwhelming favourite for the "man of the series" award, is however Adam Gilchrist. A look at Table 1 indicates that Gilchrist and Mahendra Singh Dhoni have very similar totals; only Gilchrist has scored his runs at a much faster rate.

Table 1: The most valuable players in the Commonwealth Bank series (13 matches so far)

Rank	Player	Country	Runs	Balls	batpts	Rc	Bb	W	bwlpts	Ct|St	Run Outs	fldpts	M	Total
1	Nathan Bracken	Aus	16	43	-2.4	316	461	18	484.8	1	0	5	9	487
2	Adam Gilchrist	Aus	320	325	380	0	0	0	0	16|2	0	100	9	480
3	Gautam Gambhir	Ind	425	516	437.2	0	0	0	0	1	0	5	9	442
4	James Hopes	Aus	130	162	130.4	198	335	8	262	2	1.5	46	8	438
5	Brett Lee	Aus	66	112	42.4	298	370	15	358	2	0.5	22	7	422
6	Mahendra Singh Dhoni	Ind	311	432	276.4	0	0	0	0	16|2	1	124	9	400
7	KC Sangakkara	SL	326	447	294.4	0	0	0	0	6|2	1	74	8	368
8	Mitchel Johnson	Aus	27	47	16.4	278	426	11	326.8	1	0.5	17	8	360
9	Ishant Sharma	Ind	5	17	-3.6	285	373	14	349.4	2	0	10	9	356
10	Sachin Tendulkar	Ind	308	347	338.4	21	24	0	-1.8	2	0	10	9	347
11	Harbhajan Singh	Ind	54	42	74.4	233	331	7	199.8	1	2.5	65	9	339
12	Brad Hogg	Aus	85	132	64.4	236	327	8	217.6	0	0	0	7	282
13	Rohit Sharma	Ind	233	306	221.2	5	6	0	-0.2	5	1.5	61	9	282
14	Irfan Pathan	Ind	106	162	82.4	323	360	9	181	1	0.5	17	9	280
15	Michael Clarke	Aus	297	424	254.8	78	96	0	-1.2	3	0	15	9	269
16	SL Malinga	SL	19	65	-14	368	430	12	264	1	0.5	17	8	267
17	Mathew Hayden	Aus	243	320	230	0	0	0	0	2	1	34	7	264
18	M Muralitharan	SL	25	43	15.6	353	440	9	215	3	0	15	8	246
19	MKDI Amerasinghe	SL	16	20	16	276	342	9	213.6	1	0	5	7	235
20	Michael Hussey	Aus	234	350	188	0	0	0	0	6	0.5	42	9	230
21	TM Dilshan	SL	159	169	182.8	19	12	0	-9.4	4	1.5	56	7	229
22	DPMD Jayawardene	SL	214	297	190.4	0	0	0	0	7	0	35	8	225
23	Ricky Ponting	Aus	190	261	171.2	0	0	0	0	4	1	44	9	215
24	Stuart Clark	Aus	31	41	29.2	119	216	5	173.8	1	0	5	4	208
25	Yuvraj Singh	Ind	164	201	167.2	105	138	1	29.4	1	0	5	8	202
26	Praveen Kumar	Ind	6	8	5.6	129	180	6	159	2	1	34	3	199
27	Andrew Symonds	Aus	132	170	128	32	35	0	-4	4	1	44	9	168
28	WPUJC Vaas	SL	19	39	6.8	270	372	5	147.6	0	0	0	7	154
29	ST Jayasuriya	SL	103	116	113.2	42	37	1	11.6	1	1	29	8	154
30	S Sreesanth	Ind	8	11	7.2	189	188	7	129.4	0	0	0	6	137
31	KMDN Kulasekara	SL	14	29	4.8	129	156	5	115.8	1	0	5	3	126
32	Virender Sehwag	Ind	81	103	79.6	66	78	1	20.4	1	0.5	17	5	117
33	MF Maharoof	SL	10	20	4	152	187	4	93.6	1	0.5	17	4	115
34	Robin Uthappa	Ind	112	165	92	0	0	0	0	4	0	20	9	112
35	CK Kapugedera	SL	86	176	31.2	101	132	2	52.6	2	0.5	22	7	106
36	Munaf Patel	Ind	0	9	-7.2	120	162	2	57.6	0	1	24	3	74
37	LPC Silva	SL	79	171	21.2	0	0	0	0	3	0	15	8	36
38	Dilruwan Perera	SL	14	36	-0.8	28	42	1	29.6	0	0	0	3	29
39	Ashley Noffke	Aus	0	0	0	46	54	1	21.2	0	0	0	1	21
40	Piyush Chawla	Ind	0	0	0	33	60	0	15	1	0	5	1	20
41	WU Tharanga	SL	10	18	5.6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	5.6
42	Brad Haddin	Aus	12	44	-11.2	0	0	0	0	1	0	5	3	-6.2
43	Manoj Tiwari	Ind	2	16	-8.8	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	-8.8

Runs (scored) | Balls (taken) | Bat-pts: Batting points | | Rc: Runs conceded | Bb: Balls bowled | W: Wickets taken | Bowl-pts: Bowling points | Ct/St: Catches taken / Stumpings | Run outs (participated) | Field-pts: fielding points | M: Matches played | Total (points) = 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.

After his match-winning century, Sachin Tendulkar is almost certain to be India's most valuable player of the 2007-08 ODI season; at most a couple of games remain before the season draws to a close and even Yuvraj Singh in his best form would have found it hard to overtake the peerless batting master.

Table 2: India's most valuable players of the 2007-08 season (35 matches so far)

Rank	Player	Runs	Balls	batpts	Rc	Bb	W	bwlpts	Ct|St	Run Outs	fldpts	M	Total
1	Sachin Tendulkar	1423	1699	1487	268	258	5	58.4	7	0.5	47	32	1592
2	Yuvraj Singh	1095	1315	1138	570	609	12	205.2	8	2.5	100	34	1443
3	Mahendra Singh Dhoni	988	1272	958	0	0	0	0	35|13	5.5	437	33	1395
4	Gautam Gambhir	988	1273	958	0	0	0	0	3	0	15	27	973
5	Sourav Ganguly	611	850	542	300	348	5	98.4	1	1	29	20	669
6	Zaheer Khan	148	208	130	1000	1160	22	456	2	2.5	70	22	656
7	Harbhajan Singh	155	161	181	672	895	14	380	6	2.5	90	19	651
8	Irfan Pathan	237	338	204	875	971	21	405.8	4	0.5	32	21	641
9	Robin Uthappa	434	474	489	0	0	0	0	9	2	93	23	582
10	R P Singh	26	55	8	788	885	24	496	2	2	58	18	562
11	Rahul Dravid	462	554	481	0	0	0	0	10	0.5	62	20	543
12	Piyush Chawla	20	34	12.8	571	726	17	417.8	9	0.5	57	14	488
13	S Sreesanth	26	64	0.8	549	554	22	422.2	3	0	15	13	438
14	Rohit Sharma	294	380	284	8	12	0	1.6	8	1.5	76	13	362
15	Ishant Sharma	5	17	-3.6	323	415	14	345	2	0	10	10	351
16	Ramesh Powar	46	78	29.6	528	668	10	246.4	2	0	10	13	286
17	Virender Sehwag	210	243	226	149	162	2	28.6	3	0.5	27	10	281
18	Murali Kartik	37	48	35.6	300	377	10	241.6	0	0	0	7	277
19	Dinesh Karthik	180	217	186	0	0	0	0	12|1	0.5	82	13	268
20	Ajit Agarkar	19	38	7.6	415	414	12	204.2	2	0.5	22	8	234
21	Praveen Kumar	18	21	19.2	179	240	6	157	2	1	34	4	210
22	Munaf Patel	1	12	-7.6	328	378	8	166.4	1	1	29	8	188
23	Dinesh Mongia	34	41	35.2	106	108	3	52.4	0	0	0	2	87.6
24	Manoj Tiwari	2	16	-8.8	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	-8.8

Runs (scored) | Balls (taken) | Bat-pts: Batting points | | Rc: Runs conceded | Bb: Balls bowled | W: Wickets taken | Bowl-pts: Bowling points | Ct/St: Catches taken / Stumpings | Run outs (participated) | Field-pts: fielding points | M: Matches played | Total (points) = 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.

Srinivas Bhogle and Debasish Ghosh work for Cranes Software International Limited, Bangalore.