Bangalore: Left-arm pacer Jaydev Unadkat was the costliest Indian buy fetching a mind boggling Rs 11.5 crore deal from the usually thrifty Rajasthan Royals while Australia pacer Andrew Tye pocketed a Rs 7.2 crore contract from Kings XI Punjab on the final day of the IPL auction here Sunday.
After leggie Rashid Khan took home Rs 9 crore on the opening day, another Afghanistan spinner Mujeeb Zadran, all of 16 years, was richer by Rs 4 crore when KXIP made the winning bid for the teen sensation.
Much to the relief of Chris Gayle fans, the West Indian opener finally found a buyer towards the end of the day when KXIP bought him for his Rs 2 crore base price. Gayle was brought into the auction pool for the third time after going unsold twice.
Afghan teenager Zadran has already played the highest level and is currently part of the U-19 World Cup squad in New Zealand. His teammate in New Zealand, Zahir Khan, went to Rajasthan Royals for Rs 60 lakh.
KXIP and RR went into the auction with the biggest purse having retained only one player. RR continued spending big on day two and KXIP too was not far behind. However, by the end of the day, KKR left both of them behind by using their entire purse of Rs 80 crore despite buying the fewest players, 19.
The Royals, known for their wise spending, began day two with a bang splurging some more to Karnataka off-spinner Krishnappa Gowtham for Rs 6.2 crore. The expensive shopping spree was not to end there as they got Unadkat after his price skyrocketed to Rs 11.5 crore from a base price of Rs 1.5 crore following a bidding war between Chennai Super Kings and Kings XI Punjab. Rajasthan Royals, however, had the last laugh.
Unadkat was sought after because of his specialist T20 skills and the fact that he took 24 wickets at 13.41 for Rising Pune Supergiant last season. He was also the man of the series in India’s previous T20 series against Sri Lanka.
Rahasthan Royals had also made the auction’s most expensive buy Saturday, picking up England all-rounder Ben Stokes for Rs 12.5 crore. Their another costly purchase was offie Gowtham, who was sold for 31 times his base price of Rs 20 lakh.
Teams continued with their strategy of going after the Indian players. Spin bowling all-rounder Washington Sundar was sold to RCB for Rs 3.2 crore, Punjab pacer Sandeep Sharma went to Sunrisers Hyderabad for Rs 3 crore, Kings XI Punjab used Right to Match (RTM) to retain Mohit Sharma for Rs 2.4 crore.
Jharkhand spinner Shahbaz Nadeem was bought back by Delhi Daredevils for Rs 3.2 crore and Mohammad Siraj was picked up by RCB for Rs 2.6 crore. KKR targeted the budding talent, picking up another India U-19 performer Shivam Mavi for Rs 3 crore after buying Kamlesh Nagarkoti and Shubman Gill on day one.
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