Bengaluru:ndian left-hander Yuvraj Singh and wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik were sold for big bucks. But in a big surprise, there were no takers for South African opener Hashim Amla after the first round of bidding for marquee players in the IPL auction here Monday.
The Indian Premier League (IPL) auction ahead of the eighth season got under way here Monday.
Indian wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik and leg-spinner Amit Mishra, also fetched big money in the auction.
Karthik was bought by Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) for an eye-opening Rs.10.5 crore. Mishra went for Rs.3.5 crore to Delhi Daredevils.
Sacked England batsman Kevin Pietersen was snapped up by Sunrisers Hyderabad for Rs.2 crore while Australian batsman Aaron Finch, who scored a superb match-winning century against England in the World Cup Saturday, was bought by Mumbai Indians (MI) for Rs.3.2 crore.
Former West Indies captain Darren Sammy went to Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) for Rs.2.8 crore.
The auction process intensified when a bidding war broke out between Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Daredevils which saw Yuvraj's price skyrocket.
Finally, the Delhi franchise bid a whopping Rs.16 crore for the batsman, who was left out of the India squad for the World Cup.
Incidentally, RCB had let go of Yuvraj, the most expensive buy of the last IPL auction, after buying him for Rs.14 crore the last time around.
Delhi Daredevils also snapped up Sri Lankan ODI captain Angelo Mathews for Rs.7.50 crore.
Former Chennai Super Kings (CSK) opener Murali Vijay with a base price of Rs.50 lakh was bought by Kings XI Punjab for Rs.3 crore.
Earlier, Amla, with a base price of Rs.2 crore, was the first player to go under the hammer but remained unsold.
Amla, who is currently on national duty with South Africa in the World Cup, averages an incredible 55.93 in 108 One-Day Internationals (ODI) played.
He has scored 19 hundreds and 27 fifties with a highest score of 153 out. He also has 23 Test centuries to his name and averages 52.78 in the longest format of the game.
He has played 26 Twenty20 internationals, scoring 600 runs at an average of 25.
Several other famous cricketers found no takers when their names went under the hammer including Sri Lankan batting trio of Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene.
Indians Irfan Pathan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Zaheer Khan and Munaf Patel, West Indies' wicket keeper Denesh Ramdin and all-rounder Marlon Samuels and Australia's batting duo of Cameron White and Brad Hodge all went unsold.
They will all again be presented for auctioning later.
