By IANS,
Panaji : Bangladesh fast bowling spearhead Mashrafe Mortaza turned out to be the showstopper just when the second Indian Premier League (IPL) players’ auction was heading towards a drab end. Here is how the auction unfolded Friday:
The auction started at 10.45 am at the historical Fort Aguada Resort and lasted a little over two hours.
Round I:
IPL champions Rajasthan Royals were the first to start the process as they bought Australian bowler Shaun Tait for $375,000.
Events started getting hot with South African batsman Jean-Paul Duminy being bought by Mumbai Indians for $950,000.
Then came the first biggest catch of the day. Chennai Super Kings bid a record price of $1.55 million for England allrounder Andrew Flintoff.
Bangalore Royal Challengers bid $1.55 million for former England captain Kevin Pietersen.
Pietersen and Flintoff have now become the costliest players in the IPL, surpassing Chennai Super Kings captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who was sold for $1.5 million.
Round II:
Deccan Chargers bought West Indies bowler Fidel Edwards for $150,000. Delhi Daredevils got England batsmen Owais Shah and Paul Collingwood for $275,000 each. Brad Haddin, Stuart Clark, Chamara Kapugedera didn’t find any takers.
Round III:
Rajasthan Royals bought South African all-rounder Tyron Henderson for $650,000. England all-rounder Ravi Bopara sold to King’s XI Punjab for $450,000.
Chennai Super Kings bid $140,000 for Sri Lankan bowler Thilan Thusara. Bangalore Royal Challengers bagged New Zealand batsman Jesse Ryder for $160,000 and Mumbai Indians get New Zealand bowler Kyle Mills for $150,000.
Phil Jaques, Ashwell Prince, Andre Nel, Luke Wright, Nuwan Kulasekara again find no takers.
Round IV:
West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Smith sold to Deccan Chargers for $100,000. No takers for Samit Patel, Shakib-Al-Hasan, Morne Wan Vyk, Jerome Taylor, Steven Smith, Ashley Noffke, Mohammad Ashraful and Darren Powell.
Round V:
Big set-back for the IPL as again none bid for Tamim Iqbal, Bryce McCain, James Franklin, Adrian Blizard, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Michael Klinger, S. Weeraratne, Prasanna Jayawardene and Dominic Thornely in this round.
Round VI:
This round sprung the biggest surprise package of the day in Bangladesh fast bowler Mashrafe Mortaza, who was bought by Kolkata Knight Riders for a whopping $600,000 after an intense bidding with Kings XI Punjab.
Shah Rukh Khan’s Knight Riders were locked in the longest auction tussle against Preity Zinta’s Kings XI Punjab. Knight Riders were the first to take the call before Preity pitched in aggressively in what turned out to be a virtual war between two Bollywood stars that continued for 20 minutes. Actress Juhi Chawla, co-owner of Knight Riders, piloted the bid in the absence of Shah Rukh.
Chennai Super Kings buy Australia’s George Bailey for $50,000. At the end of this round there were no takers for Yusuf Abdullah, Daniel Harris, Kemar Roach, Aaron Bird.