Not a Viru good price for Mr Marquee player
Virender Sehwag, one of the 16 marquee players for the IPL-7 auction, suffered quite a setback as far as his price is concerned.
The big-hitting opener, who had a base price of Rs 2 crore, eventually went to Kings XI Punjab for just Rs 3.20 crore.
<img src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/2014/feb/13sehwag.jpg" alt="" /> Delhi Daredevils&rsquo; Virender Sehwag during IPL-VI last year
At first, the franchises were reluctant to begin bidding for him, but just as the auctioneer was about to declare him unsold, Punjab made the first bid. Immediately, Mumbai Indians raised it to Rs 2.20 cr. The tug of war between Mumbai and Punjab continued for a while before MI reached Rs 3 cr. Punjab raised it to Rs 3.20cr and MI owner Nita Ambani simply shook her head in disinterest.
Sehwag was sold to Punjab after Delhi Daredevils did not exercise their Right To Match card to retain him.
King XI Punjab buy more, spend less
Kings XI Punjab emerged as the smartest franchisee on Day One. Retaining just two players prior to the auction &mdash; David Miller and Manan Vohra &mdash; the Punjab team bought 10 players yesterday. They bought Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Johnson, Virender Sehwag, George Bailey, Cheteshwar Pujara, Shaun Marsh, Wriddhiman Saha, Laxmipathy Balaji and Thisara Perera were bought besides using their Right To Match card to retain Parwinder Awana.&nbsp;
<img src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/2014/feb/13zinta.jpg" alt="" /> Smart girl: Kings XI Punjab co-owner Preity Zinta on Day One of the IPL-7 player auction in Bangalore yesterday
Punjab spent wisely too. Barring Johnson and Maxwell, who were bought for Rs 6.5cr and Rs 6cr respectively, they got good bargains for some quality players like Sehwag (Rs 3.20 cr), Bailey (Rs 3.25cr) and Marsh (Rs 2.20cr). Punjab still have one Right To Match card available and a maximum purse of Rs 14.2cr on Day two of the auction today.
Delhi beaten by Rahul&rsquo;s late cut
Rahul Dravid is normally perfect with his late-cuts, and the Delhi Daredevils should have known that. Yesterday, as both franchises were bidding for Australian Nathan Coulter-Nile, Dravid just seemed to back down for a bit when the price reached 1.2cr. The auctioneer hit the hammer to signify that the player was sold to Delhi.
<img src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/2014/feb/rahul.jpg" alt="" />
However, Dravid&rsquo;s hand was raised, indicating his interest in the bid. taking Dravid&rsquo;s word that he wasn&rsquo;t late in raising his hand, the bidding between the two franchises for Coulter-Nile continued. However, when the figure touched 4.25cr, Dravid calmly backed off, thereby ensuring delhi bought the player for a price much higher than Rs 1.25cr.&nbsp;
KKR mess up joker card
Kolkata Knight Riders made a complete mess of the Right To Match card for Jacques Kallis yesterday. Kallis, who had a base price of Rs 2cr, was ultimately bought back by KKR for a Rs 5.5cr. To begin with, Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Daredevils took their Kallis bid to Rs 2.80cr.
<img src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/2014/feb/13kallis.jpg" alt="" /> Lucky boy: Jacques Kallis
Delhi backed out when KKR entered the bidding war at Rs 3cr. KKR and Chennai then raised the bidding to Rs 5.5cr before KKR dropped out, only to return to exercise their RTM for Kallis. Had KKR backed out earlier, they would have got Kallis cheaper.&nbsp;
Shami, Bhuvi overtake Ishant&nbsp;
Ishant Sharma may be one of the more experienced pacers in India, but the lanky bowler did not manage to attract enough interest among bidders yesterday.
<img src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/2014/feb/13ishant.jpg" alt="" /> Out of form: Ishant Sharma
In fact, much less experienced bowlers like Bhuvneshwar Kumar (Rs 4.25cr to Sunrisers Hyderabad)) and Mohd Shami (Rs 4.25cr to Delhi Daredevils) earner a lot more than Ishant (Rs 2.60cr to Sunrisers Hyderabad)), who was dropped on Tuesday from the Asia Cup and World T20 squads. Clearly, the franchises prefer form over experience in the IPL.
Pathans plummet
The Pathan brothers, Yusuf and Irfan suffered massive pay cuts in yesterday&rsquo;s auction.
In the 2011 auction, KKR paid 9.66 cr for Yusuf who was eventually retained by KKR with their RTM card for just Rs 3.25 cr (base price Rs 2 crore). Younger brother Irfan, who was bought by Delhi Daredevils for 8.7cr in the 2011 auction, was bought by Hyderabad Sunrisers here for Rs 2.4 crore (base price Rs 1.5cr)
Mallya &lsquo;happy&rsquo; to pay more for Yuvi
Royal Challengers Bangalore&rsquo;s decision to spend a whopping Rs 14cr on Yuvraj Singh has left them with the least purse of Rs 1.8cr today. RCB had almost bought Yuvraj for Rs 10cr when KKR joined in the bidding and the figure went up to Rs 14cr.
<img src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/2014/feb/13mallya.jpg" alt="" />
RCB owner Vijay Mallya though was &ldquo;very happy&rdquo; to bag Yuvi. &ldquo;Virat Kohli, our captain, was very keen on him,&rdquo; said Mallya.&nbsp;
Taylor, White, Tait, Ryder SHOCKED! It was surprising to see Kiwi hard-hitter Ross Taylor (base price Rs 2cr), who slammed a double ton against India recently, find no takers yesterday. Australia&rsquo;s Cameroon White (base price 1.4cr) also went unsold, alongwith some more prominent names like Australia pacers Shaun Tait and Brett Lee, and NZ hard-hitter Jesse Ryder.&nbsp;
Pacer RP Singh and left-arm spinner Murali Kartik were among the prominent Indians, who went unsold yesterday. Kartik later wrote on Twitter: &ldquo;This World is a very very selfish place, have lost faith in people.&rdquo;

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