Thaindian News

Bangalore, Jan 9 (IANS) The excitement of the ebb and flow of the first day’s auction in the Indian Premier League (IPL) was expectedly missing on the second day and a little-known Australian Daniel Christian caused a ripple, being the top money grosser at $900,000 Sunday. Christian,27, was bought by Deccan Chargers but his paycheque, 18 times his base figure of $50,000, was nowhere near Gautam Gambhir’s record $2.4 million Saturday and it summed up the mood of the day.

Christian is a fast bowler and a hard-hitting lower-order batsman from from New South Wales.

Most of the 10 franchises resorted to tactical buying on the second day as they were tight-fisted, having splurged Saturday going after the top guns.

Unlike the opening day’s drama, the franchisees went for only selected players to get their team combination right and suit their pockets, leaving the ‘Unsold’ basket overflowing. The only suspense was when the name of Sanath Jayasuria was called, none of the electronic placards went up and the former Sri Lanka captain joined Sourav Ganguly, Brian Lara and Chris Gayle in the unwanted list.

Indian players continued to attract attention and Nagpur speedster Umesh Yadav surprisingly emerged as the second highest and top Indian on the charts Sunday. The tall fast bowler was bought by Delhi Daredevils for $750,000, 15 times more than his base price of $50,000.

Like the opening day, the owners thought it was prudent to go for the tried and tested Indian players who have done well in the shorter format. The availability factor of the Indians during the April 8-May 28 tournament also gave them the edge over reputed Australian and England players.

The 10 bidders, together having doled out $52.8 million out of their cumulative $75 million kitty, were more into defensive and tactical buying the ITC Royal Gardenia hotel, the venue of the auction. The owners were left with $19.5 million not only to buy from the auction but also to buy the uncapped players.

Auctioneer Richard Madley, however, was on speed dial as he had 18 Indians and around 50 overseas players to sell before lunch-break. In fact, the entire section for wicketkeepers was scrapped with all the teams having already taken a stumper, making one wonder whether the list could have been pruned.

The auction, which made a fast Twenty20-like start with Gambhir’s record package, slowed down like a longer duration game in the afternoon session, only a handful of players getting the owners’ nod.

Hopes of Ganguly, Lara and Gayle making a dramatic comeback in the last session when teams were allowed to select from the unsold list, was dashed with none of the franchisees showing any interest in them.

The auction, however, finished with Mohammad Kaif being brought under the hammer for the third time after going unsold twice, including the last session when 28 players were recalled. Pune Warriors pulled him out of the rejected list for his base price of $100,000 and to everyone’s surprise Deccan Chargers and Royal Challengers Bangalore jumped into the fray. RCB’s Vijay Mallya finally got him for $130,000.

Among the other big Indian catches were fast bowlers Munaf Patel (Mumbai Indians), Lakshmipathy Balaji (Kolkata Knight Riders), Ashok Dinda (Delhi Daredevils)R.Vinaykumar (Kochi), Manpreet Gony (Deccan Chargers) Abhimanyu Mithun (Royal Challengers Bangalore) and Sudeep Tyagi (Chennai Super Kings).

Some of the known overseas players to go down the hammer were Shaun Tait (Rajasthan Royals, $300,000) Wayne Parnell (Pune Warriors, $160,000), Clint McKay (Mumbai Indians, $110,000), Nuwan Kulasekara (Chennai Super Kings, $100,000).

The franchises and their new teams have just about three months to gel, strategise, practice and be in shape for the IPL 4 championship that kicks off in Chennai.

Sunday’s top buys.
Indian:
Umesh Yadav (Delhi Daredevils, $750,000), Munaf Patel (Mumbai Indians, $700,000), Venugopal Rao (Delhi Daredevils, $750,000), Lakshmipathy Balaji (Kolkata Knight Riders, $500,000), R.Vinaykumar (Kochi, $475,000), Ashok Dinda (Delhi Daredevils, $375,000), (Manpreet Gony, Deccan Chargers $290,000), Abhimanyu Mithun (Royal Challengers Bangalore, $260,000), Jaidev Unadkat (Kolkata Knight Riders, $250,000) Sudeep Tyagi (Chennai Super Kings, $240,000)

Foriegners:
Daniel Christian (Deccan Chargers, $900,000), Shaun Tait (Rajasthan Royals, $300,000), Mitchell Marsh (Pune Warriors, $290,000), Scott Styris (Chennai Super Kings, $200,000), Wayne Parnell (Pune Warriors, $160,000), Clint McKay (Mumbai Indians, $110,000), Nuwan Kulasekara (Chennai Super Kings, $100,000).