Bangalore: Once again it was Yuvraj Singh who stole the thunder at the IPL auctions.
For the second year in succession, Yuvraj topped the auction table by bagging a whopping Rs 16 crore. While last year he was picked up by the Royal Challengers Bangalore for Rs 14 crore, he will play for the Delhi DareDevils this season.
In the auction pool after his previous owners Royal Challengers released him, Yuvraj beat all expectations with the DareDevils loosening their purse strings to bag him.
But what was more interesting is that the Royal Challengers bid for him till Rs 15.50 crore until the DareDevils picked him up.
Yuvraj stole the spotlight, but not far behind was little-known Karnataka spinner KC Cariappa. The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), the champions of the last edition, surprised everyone by going all out for Cariappa.
From his base price of Rs 10 lakh, the KKR table bagged him for Rs 2.4 crore, one of the most expensive buys of the day for a newbie.
The elated young spinner, known to spin both ways with the ability to use the carom ball to good use, said: "I didn't expect more than my base price."
But the KKR bench seemed to have done their homework on the player and his achievements in the Karnataka Premier League, a replica of the IPL, where he played for Bijapur Bulls, picking up 11 wickets in six matches at an economy of six an over. The 20-year-old has also represented the state at the U-19 level in the limited overs format.
Team CEO Venky Mysore, who is originally from the city of Mysore, later told reporters that he credited the team's talent spotters for identifying Cariappa.
"Every auction throws up something slightly unusual like this," Venky said when asked about the rationale behind picking someone as unknown in the domestic circuit as Cariappa.
"He's now got an opportunity, let's now see how it pans out," said the KKR CEO.
With a purse of Rs 20.8 crore, the Bangalore franchise paid Rs 10.50 crore for wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik, the second biggest buy of the day.
Karthik was in the auction pool after his former club DareDevils released him. The Delhi franchise had paid Rs 12.5 crore for him at the 2014 auctions.
Another interesting buy was Zaheer Khan, who was picked up by the DareDevils for Rs 4 crore.
Among the overseas players, Sri Lankan all-rounder Angelo Mathews ended up being the top buy. He was picked up by the DareDevils for Rs 7.5 crore.
After walking into the auction with a rather fat purse of Rs 39.75 crore, the DareDevils picked up 14 players, including Yuvraj, Zaheer and Angelo.
Having stepped into the auction room with a purse of Rs 13.20 crore, KKR picked up seven players, the priciest of them being Cariappa.
But surprisingly, South African batsman Hashim Amla, who's currently playing for his country at the World Cup, didn't find takers. Neither did Sri Lankans Tillekaratne Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene.
Only 67 players were bought at the auction on Monday. Of them, 24 were overseas players. The teams spent a total of Rs 87.6 crore during the day's proceedings.
Sunrisers Hyderabad did some strategic buying by picking up 10 from the auction. They include Kevin Pietersen (Rs 2.20 crore), Trent Boult (Rs 3.80 crore), Praveen Kumar (Rs 2.20 crore) and Eoin Morgan (Rs 1.50 crore).
Kings XI Punjab, who had a purse of Rs 12.60 crore, picked up only three players, including Murali Vijay, who was bought for Rs 3 crore.
<-3.000>Team owner Priety Zinta later told the media that her side had retained those they wanted and hence had just a few slots. "We have seven overseas players; it's difficult to buy players and make them sit on the bench," she said.
Although embroiled in controversies over the last one year, Chennai Super Kings didn't show any slackness in filling up its vacancies.
The team had just Rs 4.80 crore to spare and managed to bag Michael Hussey and Irfan Pathan for Rs 1.5 crore each. They also picked up bowlers Rahul Sharma and Kyle Abbot for their base prices.
