MVP Day 14: Sanath Jayasuriya

This is a surprise! How did Jayasuriya suddenly become No. 1?

The answer is simple. As the Super Eight gets under way, all the players who have gone home are also out of the MVP list.

This new list features only players of the teams that made it to the Super Eight, and the statistics are drawn only from league matches featuring Super Eight teams; e.g. Australia vs South Africa or Sri Lanka vs Bangladesh (recall that Jayasuriya scored 109 in 87 balls against Bangladesh).

RANK	Country	Player	Runs	Balls	Ct	Rc	Bb	W	R/Out pts	M	Total	AVG
1	SL	Sanath Jayasuriya	109	87	1	2	11	0	0	1	160.2	160.2
2	Aus	Matthew Hayden	101	68	1				0	1	152.6	152.6
3	NZ	Scott Styris	87	113	1	25	42	2	0	1	145.2	145.2
4	SA	AB De Villiers	92	70	1				0	1	133	133
5	Aus	Michael Clarke	92	75	1				0	1	129	129
6	WI	Shivnarine Chanderpaul	102	113	0				0	1	113.6	113.6
7	Aus	Ricky Ponting	91	91	0				0	1	109.2	109.2
8	WI	Chris Gayle	18	14	1	23	60	2	0	1	102.8	102.8
9	SA	Graeme Smith	74	69	0	14	12	0	0	1	88.4	88.4
10	NZ	Jacob Oram	63	83	0	25	36	1	0	1	87.4	87.4
11	SL	Kumar Sangakkara (wk)	56	55	2\| 0				0	1	78	78
12	NZ	Shane Bond	0	0	0	19	60	2	0	1	77	77
13	SL	Lasith Malinga	0	0	0	27	36	3	0	1	73.8	73.8
14	WI	Daren Powell	0	0	0	24	54	2	0	1	67.2	67.2
15	SL	Chamara Silva	52	48	0				0	1	65.6	65.6
16	Aus	Adam Gilchrist (wk)	42	42	1\| 0				0	1	65.4	65.4
17	Aus	Shane Watson	14	9	0	46	48	1	1	1	61.2	61.2
18	SL	Mahela Jayawardene	46	70	0				1	1	60	60
19	Aus	Brad Hogg	0	0	0	61	60	3	0	1	59	59
20	Ire	Kyle McCallan	20	24	0	35	60	1	0	1	57.8	57.8
21	Eng	Paul Nixon (wk)	42	41	1\| 0				0	1	56.2	56.2
22	SL	Tillakaratne Dilshan	0	0	1	12	18	1	1	1	55.4	55.4
23	NZ	James Franklin	0	0	1	43	54	2	0	1	53.2	53.2
24	SL	Muttiah Muralitharan	0	0	0	15	54	1	0	1	52.2	52.2
25	SA	Jacques Kallis	48	63	1	66	54	1	0	1	51.8	51.8
26	Aus	Nathan Bracken	0	0	0	40	54	2	0	1	51.2	51.2
27	Eng	Kevin Pietersen	60	92	0	2	6	0	0	1	49.2	49.2
28	Eng	James Anderson	0	0	0	39	48	2	0	1	47.4	47.4
29	SL	Chaminda Vaas	0	0	0	11	42	1	0	1	46.6	46.6
30	WI	Dwayne Bravo	0	0	0	35	42	2	0	1	46.6	46.6
31	Eng	Liam Plunkett	29	34	0	43	42	1	0	1	45.4	45.4
32	Ire	Dave Langford-Smith	8	7	0	33	54	1	0	1	44.6	44.6
33	SA	Andre Hall	8	12	0	60	60	2	0	1	42.4	42.4
34	WI	Ian Bradshaw	0	0	0	27	54	1	0	1	40.2	40.2
35	Ban	Mohammad Ashraful	45	63	0				0	1	39.6	39.6
36	SL	Farveez Maharoof	0	0	1	26	42	1	0	1	36.6	36.6
37	Aus	Shaun Tait	0	0	0	61	60	2	0	1	35	35
38	WI	Marlon Samuels	27	31	0	23	30	0	0	1	30.2	30.2
39	SA	Herschelle Gibbs	17	19	2				0	1	28.8	28.8
40	SL	Russel Arnold	5	5	0	17	19	1	0	1	28.2	28.2
41	SL	Upul Tharanga	26	37	1				0	1	27.4	27.4
42	NZ	Craig McMillan	27	34	0				0	1	26.8	26.8
43	Eng	Andrew Flintoff	0	1	1	17	48	0	0	1	25.6	25.6
44	WI	Jerome Taylor	0	0	0	37	48	1	0	1	25.4	25.4
45	Eng	Monty Panesar	0	0	0	47	60	1	0	1	25	25
46	Ire	Jeremy Bray	41	72	0				0	1	24.4	24.4
47	Ban	Mohammad Rafique	7	17	0	48	60	1	0	1	24.4	24.4
48	SA	Mark Boucher (wk)	22	26	0\| 0				0	1	23.2	23.2
49	Ban	Aftab Ahmed	12	16	2				0	1	21.2	21.2
50	WI	Ramnaresh Sarwan	36	71	1				0	1	20.2	20.2
51	NZ	Brendon McCullum (wk)	0	0	4\|\| 0				0	1	20	20
52	WI	Denesh Ramdin (wk)	0	0	4\| 0				0	1	20	20
53	Aus	Andrew Symonds	18	13	0	19	12	0	0	1	16.2	16.2
54	Ban	Saqibul Hasan	4	20	0	49	60	1	0	1	15	15
55	Eng	Paul Collingwood	31	54	0	20	18	0	0	1	13.2	13.2
56	Ban	Syed Rasel	0	1	0	58	60	1	0	1	13.2	13.2
57	Ban	Tamim Iqbal	6	7	1				0	1	11.4	11.4
58	Eng	Michael Vaughan	26	52	0				0	1	10.4	10.4
59	Ire	Andrew White	18	29	1	13	7	0	0	1	10.4	10.4
60	Ire	Eoin Morgan	18	34	0				0	1	8.8	8.8
61	Aus	Michael Hussey	5	3	0				0	1	7.6	7.6
62	Ire	Niall O'Brien (wk)	11	19	0\| 0				0	1	6.8	6.8
63	SA	Makhaya Ntini	7	8	0	68	54	1	0	1	6.8	6.8
64	NZ	Stephen Fleming	7	11	0				0	1	5.2	5.2
65	Aus	Glenn McGrath	0	0	0	62	54	1	0	1	5.2	5.2
66	Ire	Andre Botha	28	56	0	35	36	0	0	1	5	5
67	Ire	Kevin O'Brien	17	46	1	13	18	0	0	1	3.6	3.6
68	Ban	Habibul Bashar	18	47	1				0	1	3.4	3.4
69	Eng	Ed Joyce	0	2	1				0	1	3.4	3.4
70	WI	Brian Lara	0	0	0				0	1	0	0
71	WI	Dwayne Smith	0	0	0				0	1	0	0
72	SA	Ashwell Prince	1	3	0				0	1	-0.4	-0.4
73	NZ	Ross Taylor	0	1	0				0	1	-0.8	-0.8
74	Ire	William Porterfield	0	2	0				0	1	-1.6	-1.6
75	Ban	Shahriar Nafees	0	3	0				0	1	-2.4	-2.4
76	SA	Justin Kemp	1	6	0				0	1	-2.8	-2.8
77	NZ	Jeetan Patel	0	0	0	42	48	0	0	1	-3.6	-3.6
78	Ire	John Mooney	0	1	0	22	24	0	0	1	-3.6	-3.6
79	NZ	Lou Vincent	0	6	0				0	1	-4.8	-4.8
80	NZ	Daniel Vettori	0	0	0	53	60	0	0	1	-5	-5
81	Eng	Ian Bell	5	19	0				0	1	-5.2	-5.2
82	Eng	Jamie Dalrymple	3	12	1	29	24	0	0	1	-8.4	-8.4
83	Ire	Boyd Rankin	0	0	0	38	30	0	0	1	-14	-14
84	SA	Charles Langeveldt	0	6	0	82	60	1	0.5	1	-14.3	-14.3
85	Ban	Mushfiqur Rahim (wk)	6	33	0\| 0				0	1	-14.4	-14.4
86	Ban	Mashrafe Mortaza	7	14	0	66	60	0	0	1	-15.2	-15.2
87	Ban	Abdur Razzak	0	2	0	86	60	1	0	1	-15.6	-15.6
88	SA	Shaun Pollock	7	7	0	83	60	0	0.5	1	-26.1	-26.1

*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.

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

"Jayasuriya", "Hayden", "de Villiers", "Clarke", "Chanderpaul" and "Ponting" have round, smiling faces and wide noses, typical of pure batsmen. "Smith", another pure batsman, has lost his smile because he bowled two expensive overs.

"Styris" is the batting allrounder with the taller nose and bigger ears, while "Gayle", who hasn't scored too many runs, is looking almost like a bowler with a tall nose, big ears and a tapered face.

To see the faces of the nine highest scoring batsmen in the Super Eight, click here.

To see the faces of the nine highest wicket-taking bowlers in the Super Eight, click here.

Finally, take a look at the graph below:

This chart shows the average MVP points of the players whose teams have made it to the Super Eight.

It would be tempting to read off possible semi-finalists from this list, it's really too early for that.

Sri Lanka have got these high points against Bangladesh, and West Indies against Ireland. So expect their average to fall. On the other hand, expect South Africa's average to rise because they've already played the toughest Super Eight team: Australia.

Once a few Super Eight matches are played this chart could indeed start pointing towards the possible semi-finalists.

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