By Chris Dhambarage
Sri Lanka’s dynamic all rounder Tillekeratne Dilshan further boosted his chances of winning the Most Valuable Player Award with another magnificent performance in the ICC 2011 Cricket World Cup quarterfinal match against England at the R. Premadasa Stadium on Saturday.
The dashing opener hammered an unbeaten 108 from 115 deliveries with two sixes and ten boundaries as Sri Lanka overtook England total of 229 runs with ten overs to spare.
Dilshan had earlier captured the prize scalp of England captain Andrew Strauss having opened the bowling to finish with the figures of one wicket for 25 runs from six overs.
As a result Dilshan has now joined Pakistan skipper Shahid Afridi and Indian all rounder Yuvraj Singh as the strong contenders to win the coveted Most Valuable Player Award.
In fact Afridi is currently on top the list with a total of 756 points having captured 21 wickets from seven outings. He is followed by Yuvraj Singh who has scored 341 runs and captured eleven wickets from his seven matches.
Dilshan also joined the line up following his heroics against England and has now scored 394 runs and captured six wickets from his six outings. With the semifinal match against New Zealand coming up on Tuesday and another good all round performance will give Dilshan a great chance of winning this prestigious award.
The Most Valuable Player Award is calculated by adding together a player's batting, bowling and fielding index. The batting index is based on a combination of runs scored and strike rate, the bowling index uses a combination of the number of wickets taken and the economy rate and the fielding index is based on the number of catches taken and the fielder's participation in run-out dismissals.