Pietersen Leads Overall England MVP 24/12/2008

Kevin Pietersen can get stuck into his Christmas turkey knowing that his star continues to rise despite England's reverse in the India Test series. Not only has he earned many plaudits for leading a united England team back to India after the Mumbai terror attacks but his century in the second Test from Mohali has seen him open up a useful lead in the overall MVP with just the West Indies to come in this year's race. Pietersen's score of 144 represented 47% of England's total taking his tally of runs to 1291 across all cricket since the beginning of our international summer, 756 of which have come in the Test arena. He has now notched six hundreds, four in Tests, two in ODIs. He is ranked second in the Test MVP behind James Anderson and third in the ODI MVP, where Stuart Broad heads the rankings.

Broad was back for the Mohali Test at the expense of Steve Harmison and started each innings with a bang, shattering the stumps of Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid. Broad finishes 2008 in second spot in the overall MVP and fifth in the Test MVP. He has 357 runs and 43 wickets across all cricket.

Jimmy Anderson heads the Test MVP having taken 38 Test wickets since the beginning of the New Zealand series. The Lancashire swing bowler will be pleased to see the back of India, however, as he has taken just four wickets in his last four one-day internationals and two Tests combined.

Andrew Flintoff had an impressive all-round game in Mohali. He took 3-54 from 30.2 overs in India's first innings before notching 62 in alliance with Pietersen, a partnership of 149 which threatened to put England right back in the match. Flintoff is ranked fourth in the overall MVP with 498 runs and 33 wickets, second in the ODI MVP and seventh in the Test MVP.

Andrew Strauss, England's batting hero of Chennai slips to third in the Test MVP having been leapfrogged by Pietersen. Strauss occupies seventh position overall, his 698 runs all coming from Test cricket.

For more information and to see the full tables and leaders in individual competitions click on the links below.

Overall Rankings - MVP
LVCC Rankings
Friends Provident Rankings
Twenty20 Rankings
NatWest Pro40 Rankings