IPL 2026, CSK vs PBKS | Value For Money Player Of The Match: Mhatre is 466x more efficient than Samson

The Economics of the Game

The Indian Premier League (IPL), right from its inception, has been about money. In fact, the recent sale of two franchises—Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and the Rajasthan Royals (RR)—fetched money in billions on initial investment of hardly 100 million dollars.

The bid document of 2008 disclosed by inaugural IPL commissioner Lalit Modi showed that all the big who’s who of India were interested in securing a franchise and the ones that weren’t initially, like TATA and Birla groups, are now core members as title sponsors and owner of the biggest franchise respectively.

So if everything in IPL is about money—as the 25 million viewers tuning in for the 2025 mega auction suggest—then why are players solely judged on the basis of performance and not on the return on the investment made on them?

We break that barrier in our new segment Value For Money Player Of The Match. For every IPL game this season, we will select a Player of the Match, which will solely be decided on the Value For Money he gives. We start the proceedings with IPL 2026’s match 7 featuring Chennai Super Kings, 5-time champions and last season’s finalists—Punjab Kings.

What is Value For Money Player Of The Match?

We take certain things constant like:

• Performance Metrics: Players will be judged on only the amount of runs scored and number of wickets taken. The simple answer is a match is won or lost by number of runs or wickets; every other skill set contributes to the sum of the parts. So therefore only runs and wickets count.
• Standardization: We take the number of matches played by every player as 14. This is to standardize the per match fees.
• Per Match Fees: Total amount paid to secure the player, divided by 14 (number of matches).
• Efficiency: Player Efficiency = Match Fees divided by runs scored/wicket taken.
• Impact Multiplier: To standardise efficiency every wicket will be measured in runs such that one wicket equals 20 runs because of the impact it has on the game.

The Performance Breakdown

The game saw big pay cheque stars assemble in the form of Sanju Samson (₹18 Crore) and Shreyas Iyer (₹25.5 Crore). At the same time, there were also players whose price did not touch ₹1 Crore. Thus, the value for money for that player, whose price is low, will anyways be more, but is it so in this game? Let’s find out.

Chennai Super Kings Batting

In a tough loss, Ayush Mhatre’s innings was a financial miracle. For perspective, Sanju Samson had a nightmare on the balance sheet, costing CSK nearly ₹18.2 Lakh per run.

Punjab Kings Batting

PBKS won the match, but their uncapped domestic anchors were the efficient heroes. While Captain Shreyas Iyer got the job done with a match-defining 50, official POTM Priyansh Arya was 34 times more efficient.

The “Impact Equivalent” Bowling (20 runs/wicket)

Value For Money Player of The Match = Ayush Mhatre

• The Mhatre Efficiency: At just ₹3,904 per run, Mhatre was nearly 100x more efficient than Shreyas Iyer and a massive 466x more efficient than Sanju Samson in this specific outing.
• The Budget Standout: Ayush Mhatre’s 73 off 43 stands out for the scale of output relative to cost, especially when placed alongside higher-priced contemporaries.

While Priyansh Arya was the official Player of the Match for sealing the win, Ayush Mhatre was the undisputed numerical Value For Money Player of The Match.

Disclaimer

While we acknowledge that a game of cricket is defined by intangible moments—leadership, match-defining catches, crucial runs saved in the deep, and the immense pressure of death-over bowling—this analysis is not intended to diminish those contributions. We understand that each of these skill sets brings its own unique value to a team’s success. However, with this piece, we are solely setting a marker on what a single run or wicket from a player costs a franchise. Our goal is to measure a player’s raw efficiency vis-à-vis the financial return on the investment made on him during the auction. This is an exercise in fiscal impact, not just on-field impact.