Smart Stats - Buttler's 107* tops batting performances list, allrounder Narine the MVP so far

Jos Buttler's stunning unbeaten 107 against Kolkata Knight Riders is now at the top of the list of best batting displays of IPL 2024, according to ESPNcricinfo's Smart Stats. According to this rating tool, which gives points to every batting and bowling performance based on a complex and detailed algorithm that takes into account match context, Buttler's innings won him 145.12 rating points, which puts him ahead of his team-mate Riyan Parag's 122.2 points for his unbeaten 84 against Delhi Capitals.

After a slow start to the season, Buttler has stamped his presence quite emphatically with two hundreds in his last three innings. His other ton - 100 not out against Royal Challengers Bengaluru - is at No. 4 with 114.03 points.

Buttler's century against KKR overshadowed the other hundred in the game, Sunil Narine's 56-ball 109. Despite scoring at a higher rate - 194.64 compared to Buttler's 178.33 - Narine's century gets 111.49 points, and is in sixth position due to the match context and the relatively greater pressure under which Buttler scored his runs.

In the last six overs, with Royals needing 96 from 36 balls, Buttler scored 65 off 27 at a strike rate of 240.74. In the last three overs, he faced all 18 balls and scored 40 - a strike rate of 222. Since the Smart Stats algorithm takes into account the pressure on the batter for each ball, Buttler received greater credit for winning the game virtually single-handedly in the last few overs.

Also in the top five are a couple of other match-winning innings: Andre Russell's unbeaten 25-ball 64 against Sunrisers Hyderabad in their first match of the season, and Shashank Singh's 29-ball 61 in Punjab Kings' thrilling chase of 200 against Gujarat Titans.

Travis Head's 102 off 41 against RCB is in eighth position, while the hundreds scored by Rohit Sharma (105 off 63 against Chennai Super Kings) and Virat Kohli (113 off 72 against Royals) are in 13th and 14th positions, respectively. In fact, Kohli's 49-ball 77 against Kings is rated marginally higher at 12th position, since that was scored in a tough, winning run-chase with little support at the other end.

Among the several top-notch bowling performances so far this season, the first place goes to Jasprit Bumrah's outstanding 5 for 21 against RCB. In a match where the other Mumbai Indians bowlers conceded 173 runs in 16 overs (an economy rate of 10.81), Bumrah conceded just 5.25, and his five wickets included two of the best - Kohli and Faf du Plessis.

Mustafizur Rahman's 4 for 29 against RCB is next, primarily because of the quality of batters dismissed: Kohli, du Plessis, Rajat Patidar and Cameron Green.

The uncapped Indian bowler who took the IPL by storm in the two full matches he played was Super Giants' Mayank Yadav, and both his performances are in the top six. His 3 for 14 against RCB - the top three performances on this list are all against them - fetched 117.03 points, while the one against Kings (3 for 27) is at sixth place and about ten points lower. In both matches, Mayank ripped out the top or middle order to derail the run chase, won the Player-of-the-Match award, and was the highest impact player of the game according to Smart Stats.

The other performances in the top six are Matheesha Pathirana's 4 for 28 in a defence of 206 against Mumbai, and Kuldeep Yadav's 3 for 20 that significantly dented LSG's push for a big total. Both these efforts benefited from the fact that they dismissed key batters: Pathirana accounted for Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma and Romario Shepherd, while Kuldeep got rid of KL Rahul, Marcus Stoinis and Nicholas Pooran.

With 276 runs at a strike rate of 187.75, and seven wickets at an economy rate of 6.87, it's easy to see why Narine has the highest impact rating in the tournament so far, among players who've played at least four games. The player ratings are calculated by summing up the batting and bowling ratings, which are computed on a per-match value.

In fact, there are two KKR players in the top three, with Russell taking the third spot. The top six has an even mix of batters, bowlers and allrounders, with Parag and Head representing the batters, and Bumrah and Kagiso Rabada the bowlers.