And the most useless man of the match award goes to ….

… Bhargav Bhatt in the Kings XI Punjab vs Mumbai Indians game, for taking an “amazing” haul of 4 tail enders. Bhatt’s wickets had little to contribute to Punjab’s victory: By the time he had picked up his first wicket, the win probability of Mumbai Indians was already down to almost zero – which means that, historically speaking, no team had lost after putting the chasing team in such dire straits. This meant that Bhatt’s win probability added came out to be a neat 0. (On the other hand, Marsh’s man of the match award for his four wicket haul in the Deccan Chargers vs Pune Warriors match was well deserved – Marsh came out tops with a 0.286 win probability added).

So who should have received the man of the match award in the Punjab vs Mumbai game? Praveen Kumar is one such candidate for his excellent opening spell in which he took two wickets (thereby accumulating a 0.228 WPA), but it was another Marsh – Shaun Marsh this time – whose 43 runs were the main catalyst in taking Punjab to a par score of 163. He ended up with a 0.271 WPA, the highest in the game. Either of the two players would have been a good choice for the man of the match award, but no way it should have been given to Bhatt.