SPORTS: Live: IPL Auction 2016

09.32 am

Professor Ratnakar Shetty welcomes everyone, says the player auctions mark the beginning of the IPL season. True enough, it does. And often provides more excitement than even a close Twenty20 game.

09.28 am

Right, we’re all set to start. There are 351 names in there, but a maximum of only 116 can be picked. There are going to be far fewer than those picked though. Practically, every franchise is not going to go to its limit of 27 players on the roster – in fact, none might. The maximum number of overseas players that can be picked is 36 overall, but it’s likely that even that quota will not be exhausted.

09.26 am

Five minutes away. If you want a quick primer on what each franchise will be broadly looking for, and what strategies they might want to adopt, this might be a useful guide. There’s also some analysis on who might be the hot picks and value buys, alongwith the ones who have set their base prices optimistically and might well go unsold.

09.23 am

Right, we’re moments away from the auction, so here’s a quick list of the teams and their budgets, in descending order:

Delhi (37.15 crore), Hyderabad (30.15 crore), Gujarat (27 crore), Pune (27 crore), Punjab (23 crore), Bangalore (21.625 crore), Kolkata (17.95 crore), Mumbai (14.405 crore).

If you’re wondering why Gujarat are placed above Pune even though both have 27 crore, it’s because the franchise with the better name ought to be ahead in something at least. Who knows what results the auctions – or IPL 2016 itself – will bring. [Yes, I am not letting that RPSG naming thing go just yet. But if you stick with me through the entirety of the auction, I promise I will. At some point.]

09.19 am

A moment though, to note the absence of the CSK yellow and the RR blue. Seeing Rahul Dravid raise his paddle for players other teams hadn’t thought of won’t happen this year, at the very least, and that has to be sad in anyone’s book.

Who will be this year’s Rajasthan – ie the ones who spend the least and noticeably don’t get into bidding wars? I suspect no one, though Punjab could don that role if they so choose.

09.17 am

Gujarat and Pune have to build teams around strong cores, and it will be fascinating to see how they go about that. If their initial strategies are anything to go by, Gujarat will outperform Pune. I’m not talking of how they did at the draft, but of what they did after. What genius convinced them that ‘Rising Pune Supergiants’ was a name people would utter without doubling over in laughter? And I thought we’d seen the worst of the ridiculous names with Mumbai Indians and the short-lived Indi Commandos Kerala. Sigh.

Let’s hope, for the sake of a good, intense competition, that Pune’s auction strategies aren’t as bad as their naming ones.

Hyderabad and Bangalore will also have some rebuilding to do. Kolkata seem the most settled after Mumbai, and both those franchises have the least budget too, so there is some rationality in the IPL universe – or rather more of it than people might give it credit for. Punjab are the wildcard, who could target two big names and be done with it, or several smaller ones and hope to unearth gems.

09.16 am

Delhi have the most budget, and Mumbai have the least. So the IPL auction at least, doesn’t mirror political reality here.

09.13 am

Delhi Daredevils – Squad Strength: 13. Overseas Players: 5. Remaining slots for Overseas Players: 4. Total remaining slots: 14. Budget remaining: 37.15 crore.

Amit Mishra, Jayant Yadav, Mayank Agarwal, Mohammed Shami, Saurabh Tiwary, Shahbaz Nadeem, Shreyas Iyer, Zaheer Khan, Albie Morkel, Imran Tahir, JP Duminy, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Quinton de Kock.

Gujarat Lions – Squad Strength: 5. Overseas Players: 3. Remaining slots for Overseas Players: 6. Total remaining slots: 22. Budget remaining: 27 crore.

Ravindra Jadeja, Suresh Raina, Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Bravo, James Faulkner.

Kings XI Punjab – Squad Strength: 14. Overseas Players: 4. Remaining slots for Overseas Players: 5. Total remaining slots: 13. Budget remaining: 23 crore.

Axar Patel, Anureet Singh, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Manan Vohra, M Vijay, Nikhil Naik, Rishi Dhawan, Sandeep Sharma, Shardul Thakur, Wriddhiman Saha, David Miller, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Johnson, Shaun Marsh.

Kolkata Knight Riders – Squad Strength: 15. Overseas Players: 6. Remaining slots for Overseas Players: 3. Total remaining slots: 12. Budget remaining: 17.95 crore.

Gautam Gambhir, Kuldeep Yadav, Manish Pandey, Piyush Chawla, Robin Uthappa, Sheldon Jackson, Suryakumar Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Yusuf Pathan, Andre Russell, Brad Hogg, Chris Lynn, Morne Morkel, Shakib Al Hasan, Sunil Narine.

Mumbai Indians – Squad Strength: 19. Overseas Players: 6. Remaining slots for Overseas Players: 3. Total remaining slots: 8. Budget remaining: 14.405 crore.

Akshay Wakhare, Ambati Rayudu, Harbhajan Singh, Hardik Pandya, J Suchith, Jasprit Bumrah, Nitish Rana, Parthiv Patel, R Vinay Kumar, Rohit Sharma, Shreyas Gopal, Siddhesh Lad, Unmukt Chand, Corey Anderson, Kieron Pollard, Lasith Malinga, Lendl Simmons, Marchant de Lange, Mitchell McClenaghan.

Royal Challengers Bangalore – Squad Strength: 14. Overseas Players: 5. Remaining slots for Overseas Players: 4. Total remaining slots: 13. Budget remaining: 21.625 crore.

Abu Nechim Ahmed, Harshal Patel, Kedar Jadhav, Mandeep Singh, Sarfaraz Khan, S Aravind, Varun Aaron, Virat Kohli, Yuzvendra Chahal, AB de Villiers, Adam Milne, Chris Gayle, David Wiese, Mitchell Starc.

Rising Pune Supergiants – Squad Strength: 5. Overseas Players: 2. Remaining slots for Overseas Players: 7. Total remaining slots: 22. Budget remaining: 27 crore.

Ajinkya Rahane, MS Dhoni, R Ashwin, Faf du Plessis, Steven Smith.

Sunrisers Hyderabad – Squad Strength: 15. Overseas Players: 5. Remaining slots for Overseas Players: 4. Total remaining slots: 12. Budget remaining: 30.15 crore.

Ashish Reddy, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Bipul Sharma, Karn Sharma, KL Rahul, Naman Ojha, Parveez Rasool, Ricky Bhui, Shikhar Dhawan, Siddharth Kaul, David Warner, Eoin Morgan, Kane Williamson, Moises Henriques, Trent Boult.

09.11 am

It’s turning nine today, and every successive year, franchises have gotten smarter and smarter at the game. Welcome to the IPL auctions for 2016. This is Saurabh Somani and I’ll be bringing you the blow by blow action as it happens. But before Richard Madley brings his hammer down for the first name, here is a quick rundown of how things stand for each franchise now.

12.44 pm

Right, so that ends the short draft. We’ll have more analysis and reactions from it for you later, but for now, this is Saurabh Somani signing off.

12.39 pm

The summary of the vivo #IPLdraft pic.twitter.com/tGEGjZcwnr

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) December 15, 2015

12.35 pm

One of the minor surprises was no team picking Shane Watson, but then it’s not like any vastly inferior player was taken ahead of the Australian veteran, and his injury-prone body also counted against him. Watson will doubtless find a team though, since he will go back into the auction and it’s not conceivable that he won’t attract a single bid.

12.33 pm

Brief takeaways from the draft:

Both new teams have done their homework well and went with clear-cut strategies. Pune have gone for a batting-heavy core. They could potentially have Rahane and du Plessis to open, Steve Smith at No.3 and Dhoni in next – giving them an already formidable top four. Any bowling attack that has the Ashwin of 2015 it, especially in Indian conditions, already becomes formidable.

Rajkot went for allrounders, and have four terrific ones in Raina, Jadeja, Faulkner and Bravo. The fifth man, McCullum, could potentially provide more fireworks than any of them. Given his cricketing nous, ability to keep wickets if required and explosive batting, it won’t be too far-fetched to also slot McCullum as an allrounder, and Rajkot have a core that is both flexible and powerful.

12.27 pm

Hey @IPL can we please have a Maharashtra Derby on the 1st May against Pune? Paltan, what say? #MI pic.twitter.com/fAUq29ShA3

— Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) December 15, 2015

12.21 pm

So just to recap, both teams have picked the maximum of five players available to them with no uncapped Indians in either side.

PUNE: MS Dhoni, Ajinkya Rahane, R Ashwin, Steven Smith and Faf du Plessis.

RAJKOT: Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Brendon McCullum, James Faulkner and Dwayne Bravo.

Who will be the happier of the two? Difficult to say. Both will enter the auctions with a Rs 27 crore purse and both will have to build teams there.

Meanwhile, we can look forward to a few more caught Rahane bowled Ashwin dismissals, to Smith returning to Pune for the second time, after having played for the short-lived Pune Warriors India.

Who will Rajkot hand the captaincy reins to? Local boy Jadeja? Established IPL behemoth Raina? Or McCullum, who is the most exciting captain in world cricket by common consensus?

12.13 pm

Right so who are the players left who will go into the auction? The list is headlined by Shane Watson, the Man of the Series in the inaugural IPL in 2008.

Full list of players not picked in draft: Stuart Binny, Dhawal Kulkarni, Abhishek Nayar, Ashish Nehra, Irfan Pathan, Sanju Samson, Mohit Sharma, Rahul Sharma (all capped Indians), B Aparajith, Ankush Bains, Rajat Bhatia, Eklavya Dwivedi, Deepak Hooda, Vikramjeet Malik, Mithun Manhas, Ronit More, Karun Nair, Pawan Negi, Ishwar Pandey, Pardeep Sahu, Dinesh Salunkhe, Barinder Singh Sran, Ankit Sharma, Pratyush Singh, Pravin Tambe, Rahul Tewatia, Sagar Trivedi, Dishant Yagnik (all uncapped Indians), Kyle Abbott, Samuel Badree, Ben Cutting, Matt Henry, Mike Hussey, Chris Morris, Kane Richardson, Dwayne Smith, Tim Southee, Juan Theron, Andrew Tye, Shane Watson (all overseas players).

12.12 pm

And the last pick of the IPL 2016 draft is Dwayne Bravo by Rajkot. Like Pune, they have also exhausted the maximum possible Rs 39 crore from their auction budget, and will go into the February 6 big show with Rs 27 crore.

Their core also looks pretty solid with Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Brendon McCullum, James Faulkner and Dwayne Bravo.

12.08 pm

Pune have exhausted the maximum Rs 39 crore they were allowed to from their auction budget. They will go into the February 6 auction with Rs 27 crore and a core of MS Dhoni, Ajinkya Rahane, R Ashwin, Steven Smith and Faf du Plessis.

12.07 pm

Pune have picked Faf du Plessis as their fifth option. So a pretty strong core now is built.

12.05 pm

And Rajkot pick James Faulkner as their fourth one. Interesting, the World Cup Man of the Match playing alongside the beaten captain in the final. And in Pune, Rahane can be at slip for R Ashwin.

Here are the picks so far:

PUNE: MS Dhoni, Ajinkya Rahane, R Ashwin, Steven Smith

RAJKOT: Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Brendon McCullum, James Faulkner.

12.03 pm

And Steven Smith is the second overseas player to be picked. Team Pune choose the Australian captain as their fourth pick.

12.01 pm

As expected, Brendon McCullum becomes the first overseas player to be picked, and his new franchise will be Rajkot.

Both teams with three players each so far.

12.00 pm

Right so the teams so far:

PUNE: MS Dhoni, Ajinkya Rahane, R Ashwin

RAJKOT: Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja.

12.00 pm

The Chennai Super Kings boys are the ones in heavy demand first up. Pune’s third pick is R Ashwin, who might have a legitimate claim to being the world’s best spinner right now.

11.59 am

And Ravindra Jadeja will be joining Suresh Raina at Rajkot, so the franchise have the most famous local player playing for them after all. They also have lost Rs 22 crore deducted from their auction budget now.

11.57 am

And Ajinkya Rahane is Pune’s second pick. He joins MS Dhoni. Pune have a total of Rs 22 crore deducted from their auction budget now.

11.55 am

Rajkot have sprung a surprise of sorts. Suresh Raina is their first pick. Will they still be able to get Ravindra Jadeja?

11.54 am

Pune will be docked Rs 12.5 crore for their first pick. But they’ll have to pay Dhoni the salary that he was getting at Chennai Super Kings.

Now down to Rajkot. Who will they pick?

11.53 am

And no surprises by Pune. MS Dhoni is the first one picked.

11.53 am

And the draft is all set to begin. “This will be an exciting process. I welcome both the new teams on board,” says Rajiv Shukla, the IPL chairman.

11.36 am

Right, so the draft should be beginning at any minute now. We’ll bring you all the updates, as they happen, with the analysis behind the franchises’ choices. Stay tuned.

11.20 am

Do the names below sound different to the team you would have picked? Well, go ahead and have a whack at the permutations and combinations. Here is the full list of 50 players available for the draft, arranged in alphabetical order and grouped by capped Indians, uncapped Indians, and overseas players.

Full list: R Ashwin, Stuart Binny, MS Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhawal Kulkarni, Abhishek Nayar, Ashish Nehra, Irfan Pathan, Ajinkya Rahane, Suresh Raina, Sanju Samson, Mohit Sharma, Rahul Sharma (all capped Indians), B Aparajith, Ankush Bains, Rajat Bhatia, Eklavya Dwivedi, Deepak Hooda, Vikramjeet Malik, Mithun Manhas, Ronit More, Karun Nair, Pawan Negi, Ishwar Pandey, Pardeep Sahu, Dinesh Salunkhe, Barinder Singh Sran, Ankit Sharma, Pratyush Singh, Pravin Tambe, Rahul Tewatia, Sagar Trivedi, Dishant Yagnik (all uncapped Indians), Kyle Abbott, Samuel Badree, Dwayne Bravo, Ben Cutting, Faf du Plessis, James Faulkner, Matt Henry, Mike Hussey, Brendon McCullum, Chris Morris, Kane Richardson, Dwayne Smith, Steven Smith, Tim Southee, Juan Theron, Andrew Tye, Shane Watson (all overseas players).

11.14 am

On Monday, Shamya Dasgupta had an interesting take on the options Pune and Rajkot might exercise in the draft. Here is an alternative option, while we still have room to speculate, keeping the four capped Indians rule in mind:

Pune Rajkot

MS Dhoni Ravindra Jadeja

Suresh Raina R Ashwin

Ajinkya Rahane Brendon McCullum

Dwayne Bravo Shane Watson

Faf du Plessis Steven Smith

11.12 am

The first player picked will see franchises docked Rs 12.5 crore from their auction purse of Rs 66 crore. The second comes at Rs 9.5 crore, the third at Rs 7.5 crore, the fourth at Rs 5.5 crore and the fifth at Rs 4 crore. An uncapped Indian player will mean franchises are docked only Rs 4 crore.

Uncapped Indians might have only an outside chance at best in this draft though, given the number of pedigreed capped players available.

11.07 am

Here’s a quick recap. The Pune franchise is owned by Sanjeev Goenka’s New Rising consortium while Intex, a mobile phone manufacturer, bid successfully for the Rajkot franchise. New Rising made a bid of Rs minus 16 crore, while Intex made a bid of Rs minus 10 crore, to be the lowest two bidders in the reverse bidding set-up instituted by the Indian Premier League. New Rising have to right to make the first pick by virtue of having the lower bid, and the two franchises will then alternate picks till both have a maximum of five players, of which not more than four can be capped Indian players. A franchise may opt to pick less than five, though that scenario is very unlikely since both will want to get a core in place around whom they can build a team at the February auction.

10.58 am

Pune picking Dhoni will leave the Rajkot franchise with an interesting dilemma – should they go for Ravindra Jadeja, the local hero, and risk Pune also picking up Suresh Raina? This is the Raina who would doubtless be awarded the IPL’s MVP across seasons if such an award existed.

We’ll know soon enough which way the decision swings. The draft is set to begin at 11.30 a.m. IST.

10.52 am

Suresh Raina or Ajinkya Rahane? R Ashwin or Ravindra Jadeja? Who among Shane Watson, Steven Smith, Faf du Plessis, Brendon McCullum and Dwayne Bravo?

Only one thing appears certain as the two newest Indian Premier League franchises pick a maximum of five players each in Mumbai on Tuesday (December 15) before the full-fledged auction on February 6.

Pune, who have the first pick by virtue of the lower bid, will be pencilling in Mahendra Singh Dhoni as the first name on their team sheet. Alright, so that is not certain, but really, if Dhoni was available and you had first pick, who else would you go for?

10.48 am

Hello all and welcome to the D-Day, ie Draft Day, for the Pune and Rajkot franchises. This is Saurabh Somani, and I will take you through the action as it unfolds.

12.09 pm

The 82nd Ranji Trophy got underway today with four matches in each of the three groups.

Wisden India will bring you session updates from various venues across India. If you happen to be at the ground, please send in your tweets and observations to ranji@wisdenindia.com and we will feature the best on our live blog.

While you are here, read R Kaushik’s season review, and our indepth build up to the domestic season.

06.27 pm

All in all then, all franchises will have cause to be reasonably happy with how their squads are looking. This may still not be the final look of the squads, with a trading window open from today for two weeks.

The caveat is that none of the players who were part of the auctions today can be traded. But that still leaves plenty of room for other trades.

Until the next auction though, that’s it from us here for this one. Plenty of analysis, graphics and data to look out for on the site for the auction.

The IPL auction is generally the centrepiece cricketing topic for a few days after it happens, but today, it had a window of just one day. Tomorrow onwards, all eyes will once again swivel to World Cup screens. See you on the other side.

06.24 pm

You have to say, looking at just the 2015 auction, that Sunrisers Hyderabad have had the best day by far. Kane Williamson, Kevin Pietersen, Eoin Morgan, Ravi Bopara, Trent Boult and a host of domestic talent to make it 10 players for just 11.7 crore. Forget the bank-breaking Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Karthik almost went for that match alone, fetching 10.5 crore.

All Sunrisers’ big-ticket players came at bargain basement rates – which was a mystery in itself, since no team wanted to bid for them. Not that VVS Laxman, Tom Moody and Muttiah Muralitharan will be complaining though.

Royal Challengers Bangalore had, on balance, a good day too. They have Dinesh Karthik and Darren Sammy to lend balance to the squad, while Adam Milne can provide the X-factor in bowling. They will have a tough time narrowing down on four overseas players though. It could have all been quite different and hopelessly lop-sided if they had successfully bought back Yuvraj for more than they paid last time – that they didn’t was down to luck more than anything else.

Delhi Daredevils spent the most, but they got some quality for the monies in Angelo Mathews and Yuvraj – who will both be strong captaincy candidates. If Amit Mishra and Zaheer Khan can turn up fit and firing, Delhi will have covered their bowling inadequacies to a large extent, but if they don’t, Delhi will still struggle with bowling.

Mumbai Indians should be particularly pleased with the addition of Aaron Finch, and also quite chuffed that both Pragyan Ojha and Mitchell McClenaghan came to them at such low prices.

Kolkata Knight Riders sprung the surprise package in the auction with the big bucks shelled out for KC Cariappa, but their other buys were more in the nature of back-ups, save perhaps Jimmy Neesham, who could be a handful if in form.

Each of Chennai Super Kings, Kings XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals made one big purchase – Michael Hussey, M Vijay and Chris Morris – and didn’t need too many big decisions given their settled squads.

06.10 pm

The macro picture is given by the full squads. Here’s a micro picture from what happened today:

CSK Players bought in 2015 Auction: Michael Hussey, Rahul Sharma, Kyle Abbott, Ankush Bains, Irfan Pathan, Pratyush Singh, Andrew Tye, Eklavya Dwivedi.

Number of players bought: 8

Money spent at 2015 Auction: 4.1 crore

***

DD Players bought in 2015 Auction: Angelo Mathews, Yuvraj Singh, Amit Mishra, Jaydev Unadkat, Gurinder Sandhu, Shreyas Iyer, CM Gautam, Domnic Muthuswamy, Travis Head, KS Bharat, Albie Morkel, Marcus Stoinis, Zaheer Khan, KK Jiyaz.

Number of players bought: 14

Money spent at 2015 Auction: 38.4 crore

***

KXIP Players bought in 2015 Auction: M Vijay, Nikhil Naik, Yogesh Golwalker.

Number of players bought: 3

Money spent at 2015 Auction: 3.4 crore

***

KKR Players bought in 2015 Auction: James Neesham, Brad Hogg, Aditya Garhwal, KC Cariappa, Sumit Narwal, Sheldon Jackson, Vaibhav Rawal.

Number of players bought: 7

Money spent at 2015 Auction: 4 crore

***

MI Players bought in 2015 Auction: Aaron Finch, Pragyan Ojha, Akshay Wakhare, Nitish Rana, Siddhesh Lad, J Suchith, Hardik Pandya, Abhimanyu Mithun, Aiden Blizzard.

Number of players bought: 9

Money spent at 2015 Auction: 5.1 crore

***

RR Players bought in 2015 Auction: Chris Morris, Pardeep Sahu, Dinesh Salunkhe, Barinder Singh Saran, Juan ‘Rusty’ Theron, Siddharth Trivedi.

Number of players bought: 6

Money spent at 2015 Auction: 2.1 crore

***

RCB Players bought in 2015 Auction: Dinesh Karthik, S Badrinath, Darren Sammy, Sean Abbott, Adam Milne, David Wiese, Sarfaraz Khan, Jalaj Saxena, Shishir Bhavane.

Number of players bought: 9

Money spent at 2015 Auction: 18.8 crore

***

SRH Players bought in 2015 Auction: Kane Williamson, Kevin Pietersen, Eoin Morgan, Ravi Bopara, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Praveen Kumar, Trent Boult, Hanuma Vihari, Prashanth Padmanabhan, Siddharth Kaul.

Number of players bought: 10

Money spent at 2015 Auction: 11.7 crore

06.00 pm

So here’s how the final squads look:

Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni, Ashish Nehra, B Aparajith, Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Bravo, Dwayne Smith, Faf du Plessis, Ishwar Pandey, Matt Henry, Mithun Manhas, Mohit Sharma, Pawan Negi, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Samuel Badree, Suresh Raina, Ronit More, Michael Hussey, Rahul Sharma, Kyle Abbott, Ankush Bains, Irfan Pathan, Pratyush Singh, Andrew Tye, Eklavya Dwivedi.

Squad Strength: 25

Overseas players: 9

Money spent at 2015 Auction: 4.1 crore

Auction Purse Remaining: 0.7 crore

***

Delhi Daredevils: JP Duminy, Kedar Jadhav, Manoj Tiwary, Mohammed Shami, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Quinton De Kock, Saurabh Tiwary, Shahbaz Nadeem, Mayank Agarwal, Imran Tahir, Jayant Yadav, Angelo Mathews, Yuvraj Singh, Amit Mishra, Jaydev Unadkat, Gurinder Sandhu, Shreyas Iyer, CM Gautam, Domnic Muthuswamy, Travis Head, KS Bharat, Albie Morkel, Marcus Stoinis, Zaheer Khan, KK Jiyaz.

Squad Strength: 25

Overseas players: 9

Money spent at 2015 Auction: 38.4 crore

Auction Purse Remaining: 1.35 crore

***

Kings XI Punjabs: Axar Patel, Anureet Singh, Beuran Hendricks, David Miller, George Bailey, Glenn Maxwell, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Karanveer Singh, Manan Vohra, Mitchell Johnson, Parvinder Awana, Rishi Dhawan, Sandeep Sharma, Shardul Thakur, Shaun Marsh, Shivam Sharma, Thisara Perera, Virender Sehwag, Wriddhiman Saha, M Vijay, Nikhil Naik, Yogesh Golwalker.

Squad Strength: 22

Overseas players: 7

Money spent at 2015 Auction: 3.4 crore

Auction Purse Remaining: 9.2 crore

***

Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir, Andre Russell, Chris Lynn, Kuldeep Yadav, Manish Pandey, Suryakumar Yadav, Morne Morkel, Patrick Cummins, Piyush Chawla, Robin Uthappa, Ryan ten Doeschate, Shakib Al Hasan, Sunil Narine, Umesh Yadav, Veer Pratap Singh, Yusuf Pathan, James Neesham, Brad Hogg, Aditya Garhwal, KC Cariappa, Sumit Narwal, Sheldon Jackson, Vaibhav Rawal.

Squad Strength: 23

Overseas players: 9

Money spent at 2015 Auction: 4 crore

Auction Purse Remaining: 9.2 crore

***

Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Aditya Tare, Ambati Rayudu, Corey Anderson, Harbhajan Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Josh Hazlewood, Kieron Pollard, Lasith Malinga, Marchant de Lange, Pawan Suyal, Shreyas Gopal, Lendl Simmons, Unmukt Chand, R Vinay Kumar, Parthiv Patel, Aaron Finch, Pragyan Ojha, Akshay Wakhare, Nitish Rana, Siddhesh Lad, J Suchith, Hardik Pandya, Abhimanyu Mithun, Aiden Blizzard.

Squad Strength: 26

Overseas players: 9

Money spent at 2015 Auction: 5.1 crore

Auction Purse Remaining: 4.905 crore

***

Rajasthan Royals: Shane Watson, Abhishek Nayar, Ajinkya Rahane, Ankit Sharma, Ben Cutting, Deepak Hooda, Dhawal Kulkarni, Dishant Yagnik, James Faulkner, Kane Richardson, Karun Nair, Pravin Tambe, Rahul Tewatia, Rajat Bhatia, Sanju Samson, Steve Smith, Stuart Binny, Tim Southee, Vikramjeet Malik, Chris Morris, Pardeep Sahu, Dinesh Salunkhe, Barinder Singh Saran, Juan ‘Rusty’ Theron, Siddharth Trivedi.

Squad Strength: 25

Overseas players: 8

Money spent at 2015 Auction: 2.1 crore

Auction Purse Remaining: 10.65 crore

***

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli, AB de Villers, Chris Gayle, Mitchell Starc, Nic Maddinson, Varun Aaron, Yuzvendra Singh Chahal, Rilee Rossouw, Vijay Zol, Yogesh Takawale, Abu Nechim Ahmed, Harshal Patel, Ashoke Dinda, Sandeep Warrier, Manvinder Bisla, Iqbal Abdulla, Mandeep Singh, Dinesh Karthik, S Badrinath, Darren Sammy, Sean Abbott, Adam Milne, David Wiese, Sarfaraz Khan, Jalaj Saxena, Shishir Bhavane.

Squad Strength: 26

Overseas players: 9

Money spent at 2015 Auction: 18.8 crore

Auction Purse Remaining: 2 crore

***

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Shikhar Dhawan, Ashish Reddy, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Chama Milind, Dale Steyn, David Warner, Ishant Sharma, Karn Sharma, KL Rahul, Moises Henriques, Naman Ojha, Parveez Rasool, Ricky Bhui, Kane Williamson, Kevin Pietersen, Eoin Morgan, Ravi Bopara, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Praveen Kumar, Trent Boult, Hanuma Vihari, Prashanth Padmanabhan, Siddharth Kaul.

Squad Strength: 23

Overseas players: 8

Money spent at 2015 Auction: 11.7 crore

Auction Purse Remaining: 9.35 crore

05.35 pm

Ponting is looking forward to the IPL 8 opening clash against Kolkata, the defending champions. “We already know what kind of pitch we’ll be facing, with them picking up Brad Hogg and KC Cariappa,” he smiles. “The fact that they needed to add only one or two players in the auction shows Gambhir and the guys there have full faith in their existing squad, as they should, because they’re a very, very good team.”

05.31 pm

Ricky Ponting reckons Mitchell McCleneghan can have the same impact with the Mumbai side that Mitchell Johnson had a few seasons ago. Ponting also says Aaron Finch has added a lot to the side as well, and hints that these were two of the guys the MI backroom really wanted, and are glad they got them.

05.20 pm

Akash Ambani: “I think there’s no doubt Pragyan Ojha is still one of India’s best spinners. We got him at a very lucky price. He’s a fantastic buy at that price.

“We had names from all over the country, whether it was J&K, Maharashtra, Delhi. You must have plans in an auction dynamic. Of course, we play seven home games in Mumbai so we have to look at people who are familiar with that pitch.”

05.18 pm

Venky Mysore: “This auction was more of a spectator sport for us, but we needed back-up in some areas. Brad Hogg continues to field like a 21-year-old and we felt it would be important to have some cushion there.”

On Sunil Narine: “Cariappa and Narine is not a like-for-like process at all. From what we gather, Sunil is very much on the track in the process laid out by the BCCI. We expect him fully back. The rest of the picks were more to ensure back-ups and cushions, and whatever gaps the think tank perceive.

“When we picked Sunil Narine the first time in 2012, the same question was asked of us (that is being asked about Cariappa now). We bid $US 700,000 – we were fortunate Mumbai let him go at that point! That’s just how auctions work, and maybe everyone will know Cariappa now.

Raghu Iyer, CEO of Rajasthan: “We never enter an auction thinking we have to keep our budget low. We do our homework and that’s why we invariably succeed in getting players we want. (Chris) Morris was always our top pick so we were happy to get him. On (Pardeep) Sahu, we have seen leggies do well, so we thought he’s worth a shot.”

05.14 pm

Akash Ambani from Mumbai Indians explains going for Zaheer Khan after releasing him. “As soon as we got what we needed in domestic players we went for Zak. We had a target for domestic players, once we got them, we were free to go for him back. We wanted an Indian fast bowler and we got him (Abhimanyu Mithun).

Venky Mysore explains Kolkata Knight Riders’s pick of KC Cariappa: “I think every auction throws up something unusual like this. We had him with us, during CLT20 he was coming at the nets and even the legendary (Jacques) Kallis found him unusual and very good in the nets. So we thought we’d give it a shot. The auction’s dynamics are such that the pricing isn’t in anyone’s control but we were fortunate that we were in a position to take a punt.”

05.11 pm

Rahul Dravid on air now: Chris Morris can fill that allrounder spot for us. We went with our strategy of picking young players and finding talent, picking unknown faces (relatively).

Dravid says some of their picks can be “Pravin Tambes” for them.

“Once we got Chris Morris, it was about building a young squad. We already had 19 players.”

05.09 pm

It’s been an interesting auction. The big surprise is no franchise showing interest in Luke Ronchi. Didn’t they see him smash bowlers around for New Zealand recently?

Among other big names that went unsold were Hashim Amla, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene.

Yuvraj Singh may literally laugh all the way to the bank – and who can blame him? Released by RCB into the auction, he’s actually earned himself a cool extra 2 crore. That he may well deserve some luck in life after what he’s been through is another matter. But who draws up auction strategies for RCB? They bid for Yuvraj till 15.5 crore, and had Delhi not gone one better, they would have ended up buying him back at a premium. If that sounds like classic Vijay Mallya business strategy, then maybe that’s what it is!

05.06 pm

67 players sold out of a possible 88 that came under the hammer. “That’s a good average,” says Sundar Raman.

87.6 crores spent, 23 overseas players out of the 67. There is a trading window open from now for the next two weeks. No player that was part of the auction today can be eligible for trading, but subject to the purses available with each team, they can still trade other players on their roster.

That brings an end to a fairly lengthy auction day.

05.04 pm

Siddharth Trivedi is also back at a 10 lakh base price and Rajasthan Royals open the bidding for their old bowler.

He’s taint free now, and will be back with Rajasthan at base price.

05.03 pm

Chennai make a 10 lakh bid for Eklavya Dwivedi and get him at that base price.

Akash Bhandari is also back, but finds no takers, even at a base price of 10 lakh.

05.02 pm

We’re back live.

Kumar Sangakkara is back again, but still unsold. Juan ‘Rusty’ Theron goes to Rajasthan Royals at his base price of 30 lakh.

No bids for Nathan Reardon.

Aiden Blizzard gets a 30 lakh base price bid from Mumbai Indians, his old franchise and goes there.

04.49 pm

Sundar Raman says the auction will move into its last phase now. 63 players have been bought in total, with 24 in the accelerated auction. The total amount spent was 86.8 crore.

Each franchise can indicate at most three players they would be interested in, and the final shortlist of players will then come under the hammer again.

04.46 pm

Jaskaran Singh (10 lakh), Ishwar Chaudhary (10 lakh), Kshemal Waingankar (10 lakh), Poonam Poonia (10 lakh), Joel Paris (30 lakh) all go unsold.

04.43 pm

Gurvinder Singh (10 lakh), Rajwinder Singh (10 lakh), PG Dake (10 lakh), Samad Fallah (10 lakh), Pankaj Jaswal (10 lakh) – no bids.

B Singh Saran (10 lakh) goes to Rajasthan Royals at base price.

04.41 pm

Aniket Choudhary (10 lakh), Umar Nazir (10 lakh), Prashanth Parameswaran (10 lakh), Vikas Tokas (10 lakh), Yuvraj Chudasama (10 lakhs) – no bids.

KK Jiyaz (10 lakh) goes to Delhi at base price.

04.38 pm

Amit Mishra (10 lakh) – pacer not leggie – has no takers, and neither does Pradeep Sangwan (20 lakh).

Andrew Tye (20 lakh) gets a bid from Chennai, and goes to them at base price.

04.36 pm

Munaf Patel (50 lakh) is up next, but doesn’t find bids. Neither does Nuwan Kulasekara (50 lakh).

Siddharth Kaul is back in the auction and goes to Sunrisers Hyderabad for a base price of 10 lakhs. I’d wager the opportunity to be with Dale Steyn is much more precious than the base price.

04.35 pm

Abhimanyu Mithun gets an opening bid of 30 lakh from Mumbai. They’ve lost out on Zaheer, so they take another fast bowler, and Mithun goes to MI for his base price.

04.34 pm

Delhi have bid 4 crore for Zaheer. And they finally get him at that price. New IPL home for Zaheer.

04.32 pm

Zaheer Khan’s auction is like an MS Dhoni innings. From down and out in the first half, he’s surged so much that he’ll end up as among the five costliest players in this auction.

04.29 pm

Mumbai aren’t letting their erstwhile bowler go easily, but Delhi are hanging on grimly. Zak touches the 3 crore mark.

04.28 pm

Mumbai are taking their time and deliberating, but Delhi are sure they want Zaheer, with paddles going up as soon as the bid is raised.

Zaheer touches 2 crore, and that has given Delhi pause. But they’re still in.

04.27 pm

Zaheer Khan (1 crore) is back in the auction. And now the bids start. It’s between Delhi and Mumbai. Good to see that Zaheer will have an IPL team.

Delhi need him more, to complement fewer bowling stocks.

04.26 pm

Vinay Choudhary (10 lakh), Avinash Yadav (10 lakh) – no buyers.

Pratyush Singh (10 lakh) goes to Chennai at base price.

04.24 pm

Ankit Kushwah (10 lakh) joins the unsold heap, as does Ankit Shastri (10 lakh).

Will Siddharth Trivedi find a buyer? He’s at 10 lakh, back after serving a suspension. No bids.

04.22 pm

Hardik Pandya goes to Mumbai Indians for his base price of 10 lakh.

Varun Sood (10 lakh) finds no buyers.

Paul Valthaty (10 lakh), Krunal Pandya (10 lakh), Raiphi Vincent Gomez (10 lakh) are all passed over.

KXIP get Yogesh Golwalker (10 lakh) at his base price.

04.19 pm

Rajasthan Royals make a bid for Dinesh Salunkhe (10 lakh), and get him since theirs is the only bid.

Kshitij Sharma (10 lakh) doesn’t get picked. Will B Indrajith be luckier? Twin brother B Aparajith is already with CSK, but he’ll be the only one of the family in this IPL. Indrajith unsold.

04.18 pm

Swarupam Puryakastha, Assam’s spinner who led the Ranji wicket-charts, and could well do so at the end of the season too, is up next. No bids.

04.17 pm

J Suchith (10 lakh) goes to Mumbai Indians for base price.

Rohit Dahiya (10 lakh) goes unsold.

Prashanth Padmanabhan (10 lakh) goes to Sunrisers at base price.

04.15 pm

The paddles stay down for Gurinder Singh (10 lakh), but CSK and Delhi enter the bidding for Marcus Stoinis, the Australian allrounder.

Delhi have it at 25 lakh, with Chennai on a tight budget.

04.13 pm

Suneel Raju (10 lakh) goes unsold.

Vaibhav Rawal (10 lakh) has a KKR bid, who get him at base price.

No cross-bidding happening. Most franchises are getting players at base prices.

04.12 pm

Pardeep Sahu (10 lakh) finds a buyer in Rajasthan Royals at base price.

Harpreet Singh (10 lakh), Akash Bhandari (10 lakh) don’t have takers, but Siddesh Lad (10 lakh) attracts a Mumbai bid at base price. The Mumbai lad will play for his home franchise at base price.

04.10 pm

Robin Peterson has a high base price of 1 crore. With budgets and overseas quotas dwindling, there are no paddles raised.

Ashok Menaria (10 lakh), at the other end of the spectrum as a young, and cheaply priced Indian player, is also passed over. Shrikant Mundhe (10 lakh), Rush Kalaria (10 lakh) have the same luck.

Nitish Rana (10 lakh), however, finds a buyer in Mumbai. Base price again.

04.07 pm

Azhar Mahmood (50 lakh) has no takers, but Delhi want Albie Morkel (30 lakh), and they get him at base price.

04.05 pm

File photo: Irfan Pathan has a new IPL franchise in Chennai Super Kings. © Getty Images

Irfan Pathan is now back. He’s priced himself at 1.5 crore, but Chennai are interested. They make an opening bid. They’ll not have much left after this, if they are successful. And they are. New IPL franchise for Irfan Pathan.

04.04 pm

KS Bharat (10 lakh) breaks the rut of unsold players, with Delhi making a successful base price bid.

04.03 pm

No paddles raised for Craig Simmons (20 lakh), Arjit Gupta (10 lakh), Robin Bist (10 lakh), Praful Waghela (10 lakh).

04.01 pm

Travis Head (30 lakh) has Delhi interested, and they get him at base price too.

Akhil Herwadkar (10 lakh), Prashant Naik (10 lakh), Sujit Nayak (10 lakh), Prashant Chopra (10 lakh), Nikhil Gangta (10 lakh) have no bids.

03.58 pm

Shishir Bhavane on the block and RCB make an opening bid of 10 lakh. No other franchise interested, and RCB get him at base price.

03.57 pm

Michael Klinger (30 lakh), Taruwar Kohli (10 lakh), Eklavya Dwivedi (10 lakh) have no takers.

Ankit Bawne up next. Compact batsman from Maharashtra who could have a long career. Not in the IPL yet though – unsold at 10 lakh.

03.55 pm

Smit Patel (10 lakh) doesn’t attract any bids.

Manprit Juneja (10 lakh) is a fresh face, but he doesn’t have any takers either.

03.54 pm

Here’s T Suman (10 lakh) now. He goes the unsold way.

But Chennai are interested in Ankush Bains (10 lakh), who played for India Under-19 till recently, and they get him for his base price.

03.53 pm

Jackson, the highest run-getter in the Ranji Trophy so far, will go to KKR for 15 lakh. The first buy of the post lunch session.

03.52 pm

Aiden Blizzard (30 lakh) is also unsold. Franchises have called these players back. And no one’s bidding for them!

Will Sheldon Jackson get a bid? He does! Finally, Chennai open the bidding at 10 lakh, and KKR join in.

03.51 pm

Luke Ronchi up now. At 30 lakh. And still no paddles raised. This is strange. I’m flummoxed.

03.51 pm

Ross Taylor (1 crore) comes up on the block and follows the trend of players going unsold.

I sometimes think franchises include names that they think others will want so that purses get depleted.

03.50 pm

Brad Hodge (1 crore) has helped Rajasthan win many a game, and he’s back now. But the paddles remain resolutely down. Perhaps all franchises are waiting for Ronchi?

03.49 pm

Michael Carberry (50 lakh), is up next. Remember, these are unsold players franchises have asked to be brought back into the auction. But Carberry is also unsold.

Will his countryman Alex Hales have better luck? At a base price of 1 crore – he doesn’t.

03.48 pm

And we’re back live.

Kumar Sangakkara up first in the accelerated auction. But he goes unsold once again. Sadly so for Indian audiences.

03.47 pm

Among the unsold players, there are a few that should definitely come back for the auctions.

Hashim Amla has a high price tag (2 crore), which will make it difficult for teams to pick him – which is also true of Ross Taylor, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene (1 crore each). But Luke Ronchi (30 lakh) should be a clinch.

03.44 pm

Yuvraj Singh has been the bank-breaker of the auction once again, though he might not have expected it. The man himself was overjoyed of course, but more at the prospect of who he would be playing under than at his price tag.

“I was sleeping when the auction was going on. I came to know of this only when some guests came to my house and told me about the good news. The best part is, I am going to play under Gary Kirsten. I had my best years under him and hopefully I can repeat that with Delhi,” said Yuvraj.

Earlier, he had tweeted his delight, writing, “Namaste Delhi ! @DelhiDaredevils enjoyed playing for Rcb but now look forward to play under a very special man called gaza! @Gary_Kirsten.”

Kirsten also revealed that lessons had been taken on board from Delhi’s dismal last season. “I think we learned from last year that if we want a player we need to push hard for him. Hence we were prepared to go all the way with Yuvraj and it’s great for the player as well.”

03.33 pm

Fleming on team meetings in CSK – “Very short. When I was captain maybe I had them a little longer because I was probably trying to justify my position!”

Which is as good a quote as any to get back to live action from the auction.

03.26 pm

Fleming makes a very interesting point. “You do go away from this with a bit of team envy, when you look at other sides and go ‘My word, how good a side is that’.”

It’s a mark of how even the playing field is after the uncapped Indians were brought into the auction that the coach of Chennai Super Kings can feel team envy.

03.24 pm

Stephen Fleming: We’ve been really happy. Of course, there’s been a couple of people we wanted, but of course didn’t have that much money to spend. (CSK came in with 4.8 crore, the lowest among all eight franchises).

On plugging the hole of having an Indian spinner, Fleming says they are satisfied with acquiring Rahul Sharma, who has been “a bit under the radar in the last 12 months”. Overall, as it should be for the most successful IPL side, Fleming says “the main squad was already very good and we weren’t looking at too many loopholes.”

03.18 pm

The post-lunch session, meanwhile, is set to get underway shortly.

Of the eight sides, CSK, KKR, RR and KXIP came into the auction as settled units and have only enhanced their strengths with the picks they made. DD and SRH needed the most rebuilding, and of the two, SRH should be happier, though Delhi can also be satisfied with the squad they are building. They did spend a whopping 23.5 crore on just two players in Yuvraj Singh and Angelo Mathews, but then, they had the most to spend coming in anyway.

RCB tried their best to botch up yet another auction, but the additions of Dinesh Karthik and Darren Sammy are key to adding stability to their side.

MI were more or less settled anyway, and will be particularly happy with the addition of Aaron Finch and getting Mitchell McClenaghan and Pragyan Ojha for cheap.

03.14 pm

A jovial Muttiah Muralitharan (is he ever any other way?) speaks on SRH’s auction, and is understandably chuffed that the side he’s bowling coach of for the coming IPL got so many quality players at near base prices. SRH have plugged their batting hole with Pietersen, Williamson, Morgan and Bopara – not to speak of becoming the new favourite IPL team for England fans – and they’ve also picked players cleverly, having superb back-up options to cover all possibilities.

03.04 pm

Before the lunch break, we heard from RCB and CSK on how their auction has gone so far. Of key interest, of course, was RCB’s decision to bid continuously higher for Yuvraj Singh after having released him first.

PA Murali, RCB official

Why bid so high for Yuvraj? We released him for creating a purse and getting a better balanced team. In an auction, at the time you bid, you strategise in a manner that you’re able to get whom you want, but also ensure that the purse in the other teams are also a bit depleted so that you are able to get other players. That’s the basic strategy we had when we released Yuvraj. We’d have liked him to be back in the team, but unfortunately it was not to be.

Was Virat Kohli at the other end during the phone call while bidding? We didn’t have our coach or captain with us. It was important that both coach and captain were aligned to what we do.

Stephen Fleming

On buying back Mike Hussey: It is good. He is obviously a cover for batting, which is very important. He was a key component in our side for so long, and he offers a lot to the youngsters, as well as his ability. We don’t think he’s done yet. He still has some energy in his old legs. We’re happy to have him back. He’ll play a key role if he makes the starting line up, and he’ll create some competition at the top. He’s a good guy to have back in our side.

On buying players at base prices: You should ask Tom Moody (SRH), he’s had a good run today. We’ve had a couple. You just don’t know, it’s very easy to plan and strategise, but it’s like buying a house. You don’t know what price you’re going to pay. We’ve been lucky so far, and very happy with what we’ve got.

02.20 pm

The accelerated auction process will see the remaining players whittled down to a list the franchises show interest in. The players who have been unsold will be brought back into the auction if franchises want to bid for them afresh.

Right now KXIP (9.3 crore), KKR (9.45 crore), RR (11.35) and SRH (11.55) are in a position to spend some cash, if they choose to. KKR have exhausted their overseas player quota of 9 though, and SRH have room for only one overseas player, while RR and KXIP can pick two each.

Both DD and MI have in the region of six crores. CSK are down to 2.7 crore, while RCB are left with only 2.1 crore and a full quota of overseas players, along with the biggest squad size (25) so far.

While you chew on that, we’ll go chew on some lunch.

02.15 pm

Meanwhile, this is what the squads look like:

Number of players: 20 (7 slots left)

Overseas players: 8 (1 slots left)

Budget Left: 2.7 crore

***

Number of players: 19 (8 slots left)

Overseas players: 6 (3 slots left)

Budget Left: 6.4 crore

***

Number of players: 21 (6 slots left)

Overseas players: 7 (2 slots left)

Budget Left: 9.3 crore

***

Number of players: 21 (6 slots left)

Overseas players: 9 (0 slots left)

Budget Left: 9.45 crore

***

Number of players: 20 (7 slots left)

Overseas players: 8 (1 slots left)

Budget Left: 5.905 crore

***

Number of players: 20 (7 slots left)

Overseas players: 7 (2 slots left)

Budget Left: 11.35 crore

***

Number of players: 25 (2 slots left)

Overseas players: 9 (0 slots left)

Budget Left: 2.1 crore

***

Number of players: 21 (7 slots left)

Overseas players: 8 (1 slots left)

Budget Left: 9.55 crore

02.10 pm

Akash Chopra on air: KC Cariappa was apparently the video analyst of the KKR side and is a mystery spinner. He’s risen from there to part of the squad. This might be the story of this auction – even better than Yuvraj’s 16 crore payday.

02.04 pm

Information filtering through that KC Cariappa is in fact a 20-year-old offspinner who was in Karnataka’s Ranji side. It’s still a Cinderella story though.

02.02 pm

Hemant Dua, Delhi Daredevils CEO, and Tom Moody, the SRH coach, spoke to the media.

On Yuvraj Singh: We wanted Yuvraj Singh, but didn’t expect RCB to put him back into the auction and then go all out at Rs. 15 crore. That was strange. But yeah, we definitely wanted him. Given the combination that we have, he brings a lot of value to the team. He is hungry and had a good domestic form.

We didn’t expect Yuvraj to go for that price. He is a very valuable asset as he brings in more than cricket. He brings in charisma and a brand role to the team. The sponsors will like that. We did lack some form of icon player in our team and I guess we have that now.

Tom Moody: We were interested in getting Kevin Pietersen as a batsman, but he does have other strengths like leadership capabilities. But the intention was to select him as a batsman. We’ll assess the combinations at the end of the auction and decide (on captaincy). His position with English cricket has nothing do with Eoin Morgan or the English Cricket board. (On Pietersen and Eoin Morgan being in the same team)

01.54 pm

Sundar Raman: “We had 156 players this morning, 39 bought, and a total of 78.2 crore spent. And just to confirm, KKR and RCB have no overseas slots left.”

The accelerated auction process will take place post lunch.

01.52 pm

Shadab Jakati (20 lakh), Bhargav Bhatt (10 lakh) – both IPL veterans, one with CSK and one with KXIP – go unsold.

The last player before lunch is Rahil Shah, the Tamil Nadu spinner, up for 10 lakh. Still no takers. Lunch awaits.

01.51 pm

Cariappa has played for Bijapur Bulls in the Karnataka Premier League. He’s going to be stepping up a few leagues – sold to KKR for 2.4 crore. Quite a Cinderella moment.

01.48 pm

Cariappa is becoming the unexpected story of the auctions. He’s up to 2 crore and hasn’t even played a first-class match for Karnataka. And he’s 34 years old.

01.47 pm

Sarabjeet Singh Ladda (10 lakh) doesn’t find a bid. KC Cariappa (10 lakh) has both KKR and Delhi interested, and he’s pushing towards the 1 crore mark.

01.45 pm

Uncapped spinners up now, before we break for lunch. Madley might be hungry, because he’s hurrying things up.

Ali Murtaza (10 lakh) has no bids. Mihir Hirwani, son of former India legspinner Narendra, also has no bids at 10 lakh.

Akshay Wakhare (10 lakh) gets a Mumbai Indians bid and goes to them for his base price.

01.43 pm

Pradeep Sangwan has just come back from a ban after testing positive for doping. He’s at 20 lakh, but unsold.

Will Siddharth Kaul have better luck? He doesn’t, and remains unsold.

01.42 pm

Rahul Shukla, the Jharkhand seamer who played for Rajasthan Royals in IPLs past, is up next for 10 lakh. No bids.

Amit Mishra, the seamer and not to be confused with the India legspinner, also unsold at 10 lakh.

01.41 pm

The bidding for Domnic Muthuswamy hits 75 lakh, and that’s the price Delhi Daredevils get him for.

01.39 pm

Andrew Tye (20 lakh), Basil Thamby (10 lakh), Krishnakant Upadhyay (20 lakh) find no buyers. S Aravind (10 lakh) and HS Sharath (10 lakh), the Karnataka duo, also left unsold.

Domnic Muthuswamy, who used to make bullets before becoming part of Maharashtra’s attack, is up next. He gets the bidding going between Mumbai and Delhi.

01.37 pm

Jalaj Saxena, who churns out consistent performances for Madhya Pradesh season after season, goes to RCB for his base price of 10 lakh. He was with MI last year, who spent a hefty 90 lakh on him in 2014.

01.34 pm

Can Kevin O’Brien’s day get better? He’s up at 30 lakh, but he’ll have to be satisfied with just Ireland’s win over West Indies. No takers for O’Brien at the IPL auction.

01.34 pm

Shrikant Mundhe (10 lakh), Ashok Menaria (10 lakh), Robbie Frylinck (10 lakh) get no bids.

01.31 pm

Sumit Narwal (10 lakh) also gets a Knight Riders bid, but it’s the only one, so he goes to KKR for his base price.

01.30 pm

No bids for Jesal Karia (10 lakh), Ramdayal Punia (10 lakh), Kevon Cooper (30 lakh).

Rajasthan Royals make one of their forays with a bid for Aditya Garhwal (10 lakh), but as soon as that bid comes in, Kolkata also want him. And KKR get Garhwal for 25 lakh.

01.27 pm

Smit Patel (10 lakh), Sushant Marathe (30 lakh) are also unsold.

01.26 pm

Arun Karthik (10 lakh), Amit Paunikar (20 lakh) go unsold. Ankush Bains (10 lakh) was released by Rajasthan. Talented young batsman, but no takers for him.

Nikhil Naik (10 lakh) is getting some interest though. KXIP and Mumbai in the race. It’s a short one though and KXIP get him at 30 lakh.

01.23 pm

Uncapped wicketkeepers up now. Will Ben Dunk find buyers this time? At 30 lakh, but he still doesn’t.

Davy Jacobs (10 lakh), Shreevats Goswami (30 lakh) get no traction. CM Gautam (20 lakh) should attract interest. Delhi open the bidding, and make the only bid, getting him for base price.

01.20 pm

RCB get the Mumbai lad. Sarfaraz to Bangalore for 50 lakh.

01.19 pm

Sarfaraz Khan, the youngest in the auction at 17 years old, gets the bids going. One of Mumbai’s batting prodigies, Sarfaraz has already made headlines in junior cricket. Mumbai and RCB slugging it out for him.

01.18 pm

T Suman (10 lakh) finds no buyers. Sheldon Jackson (10 lakh), this year’s current leading Ranji run-scorer, is also unsold. Mohnish Mishra (10 lakh), Debabrata Das (20 lakh), Aiden Blizzard (30 lakh), Yogesh Nagar (10 lakh), Paras Dogra (10 lakh) attract no buyers.

01.14 pm

G Hanuma Vihari, another one who has had a good domestic season, attracts an immediate opening bid from Sunrisers, his former franchise. And he goes for his base price of 10 lakh to his franchise.

01.13 pm

Shreyas Iyer is sold to Delhi Daredevils for 2.6 crore. Ironic, that he’s at this moment engaged in trying to outdo the Delhi Ranji team. But so it goes.

01.12 pm

KKR think they have Shreyas Iyer, but as soon as Mumbai drop out, Delhi enter the fray. The price is past 2 crore, and the phones are out at auction tables, as strategies are discussed long distance.

01.10 pm

Kolkata have double the purse that Mumbai have (12 crore to 6 crore) and should be favourites to get Shreyas Iyer. The price has crept past 1.5 crore and with every successive bid, there’s whispered conferences at both tables.

01.09 pm

Just like we had seen last year, it’s likely that whatever franchises have kept aside in the budget will be splurged on the uncapped players – many of whom provide immense value, and sometimes are better picks than capped players.

Shreyas Iyer is illustration of that. His bidding is up over a crore now.

01.07 pm

Shreyas Iyer, who has had a superb season for Mumbai, is up at 10 lakh. There are sure to be bids, and KKR open the bidding. But Mumbai won’t let their local lad get away that easily.

01.06 pm

The final pre-lunch session now with auctioneer Madley. Five sets of uncapped players coming up.

01.02 pm

The latest update of how the squads look:

Number of players: 20 (7 slots left)

Overseas players: 8 (1 slots left)

Budget Left: 2.7 crore

***

Number of players: 16 (11 slots left)

Overseas players: 6 (3 slots left)

Budget Left: 9.95 crore

***

Number of players: 20 (7 slots left)

Overseas players: 7 (2 slots left)

Budget Left: 9.6 crore

***

Number of players: 18 (9 slots left)

Overseas players: 9 (0 slots left)

Budget Left: 12.2 crore

***

Number of players: 19 (8 slots left)

Overseas players: 8 (1 slots left)

Budget Left: 6.005 crore

***

Number of players: 20 (7 slots left)

Overseas players: 7 (2 slots left)

Budget Left: 11.35 crore

***

Number of players: 23 (4 slots left)

Overseas players: 9 (0 slots left)

Budget Left: 2.7 crore

***

Number of players: 20 (7 slots left)

Overseas players: 8 (1 slots left)

Budget Left: 9.65 crore

12.57 pm

The last set of capped players coming up. I suspect franchises won’t be queuing up yet.

Ashton Agar (50 lakh), Seekuge Prasanna (30 lakh), Carlos Brathwaite (30 lakh), Roelof van der Merwe (30 lakh), Vaughn van Jaarsveld (30 lakh), Elton Chigumbura (30 lakh), Justin Ontong (50 lakh) draw blanks.

Christopher Barnwell (30 lakh) was with CSK last year, but no bids for him either.

12.51 pm

Nuwan Kulasekara has recently become a favourite of trivia pub quizzes – having bowled the first and last balls of the 2011 World Cup and the first ball of the 2015 World Cup. No takers for him in the auction room at 50 lakh though. Hamish Bennett (30 lakh), Peter Siddle (50 lakh), Dhammika Prasad (50 lakh) also go unsold. Krishmar Santokie (30 lakh), who was with Mumbai Indians last season, goes back in the unsold heap this time.

12.47 pm

Thilan Thushara (30 lakh), Lonwabo Tsotsobe (30 lakh), Suranga Lakmal (50 lakh) go unsold. Sudeep Tyagi (30 lakh) who recently moved to Saurashtra, is also unsold, as is Shaun Tait (50 lakh). Dirk Nannes (30 lakh) once kept Glenn McGrath on the bench for an entire IPL season in 2009. Unsold today.

12.42 pm

Suraj Randiv (30 lakh), Farveez Maharoof (30 lakh), Farhaan Behardien (30 lakh), Joginder Sharma (30 lakh), Jonathan Carter (30 lakh), Nathan Reardon (50 lakh), Doug Bracewell (50 lakh), Grant Elliott (30 lakh) and Anton Devcich (30 lakh) all go unsold.

12.35 pm

RP Singh was the IPL’s highest wicket-taker in 2009, when Deccan Chargers stormed to the title under Adam Gilchrist. Today, at 30 lakh, he finds no takers. Unsold.

12.34 pm

Ben Laughlin (30 lakh) has no bids. L Balaji (50 lakh) was released by KXIP. He’s had success in the IPL in the past with both CSK and KKR. Will he find a new home, or return to an old one? No opening bids, so he won’t.

12.32 pm

Delhi Daredevils win the bidding war and get Sandhu for 1.7 crore. Homecoming of sorts for the lad with Punjab origins.

12.30 pm

Delhi and Rajasthan are both interested in Sandhu, the young Australian bowler of Indian origin. I hope franchises know that he will still count as an overseas player…

But here’s the bid rising to well above 1 crore, and both DD and RR still in it.

12.29 pm

Ravi Rampaul at 50 lakh finds no takers, and neither does Doug Bollinger (1 crore), but Gurinder Sandhu (30 lakh) makes franchises pick up the bidding.

12.26 pm

Kyle Abbott (30 lakh) also has a bid, with Chennai Super Kings making the opening – and only – bid. Will it be Abbott v Abbott when CSK take on RCB?

12.25 pm

The next lot are overseas fast bowlers. I don’t think we’ll see franchises showing any real interest.

Sheldon Cottrell (30 lakh), Juan ‘Rusty’ Theron (30 lakh) get no bids, but Mitchell McClenaghan (30 lakh) goes to Mumbai Indians for his base price. The Mumbai table are ecstatic at getting him for base price.

12.21 pm

No bids for Johan Botha (1 crore), Azhar Mahmood (50 lakh), Robin Peterson (1 crore) or David Hussey (1 crore).

The McCullum, Morkel and Hussey households will each have one sibling in the IPL and one unsold – as of now at least.

12.18 pm

Nathan McCullum (50 lakh) – will he join brother Brendon in the IPL? Not this year, or not yet at least. Unsold.

No takers for Jeevan Mendis (50 lakh), Albie Morkel (30 lakh), Sachithra Senanayake (1 crore) either.

Meanwhile, RCB and KKR have exhausted their overseas quota of 9 players, and hence can’t bid for any of these players.

12.14 pm

Wiese has a Twenty20 strike-rate of over 160, and a handy bowling average of 23.21 too. The franchises have done their homework, or at least consulted, stats. RCB drag the bid to 2.8 crore, at which point it starts to peter out and RCB bag him for that price.

12.12 pm

David Wiese (30 lakh), is the first one under the hammer and the franchises are interested, with Delhi and RCB going at it. How many bidding wars have these two had today?

Wiese goes up, up and away – soaring past the 1 crore mark in quick time.

12.10 pm

We’re ready for the next set.

Delhi still have only 15 players in their squad, and a budget of 11.65 crore now. KKR have a higher budget, but they have sleepwalked through the auction so far, for the most part.

12.06 pm

Team Update:

Number of players: 19 (8 slots left)

Overseas players: 7 (2 slots left)

Budget Left: 3.0 crore

***

Number of players: 15 (12 slots left)

Overseas players: 5 (4 slots left)

Budget Left: 11.65 crore

***

Number of players: 20 (7 slots left)

Overseas players: 7 (2 slots left)

Budget Left: 9.6 crore

***

Number of players: 18 (9 slots left)

Overseas players: 9 (0 slots left)

Budget Left: 12.2 crore

***

Number of players: 18 (9 slots left)

Overseas players: 7 (2 slots left)

Budget Left: 6.305 crore

***

Number of players: 20 (7 slots left)

Overseas players: 7 (2 slots left)

Budget Left: 11.35 crore

***

Number of players: 22 (5 slots left)

Overseas players: 8 (1 slots left)

Budget Left: 5.5 crore

***

Number of players: 20 (7 slots left)

Overseas players: 8 (1 slots left)

Budget Left: 9.65 crore

11.58 am

Abhinav Mukund could be a good buy for a low 30 lakh base price, but franchises continue to keep their paddles firmly down.

Callum Ferguson (30 lakh) also finds no takers, as another set ends without a single bid.

11.57 am

A new set of batsmen set to be auctioned now, but how interested will franchises be?

Dean Elgar (30 lakh), Hamish Rutherford (30 lakh), Richard Levi (50 lakh), Venugopala Rao (30 lakh), Darren Bravo (50 lakh), Lahiru Thirimanne (50 lakh) all go unsold.

11.51 am

Nathan Lyon (1 crore), Michael Beer (1 crore), Ajantha Mendis (50 lakh), Cameron Boyce (50 lakh), Akila Dananjaya (30 lakh) all go unsold.

Brad Hogg (50 lakh) attracts a buyer in KKR though, who get him for his base price.

11.47 am

A nice little moment there, when the camera panned from Rahul Dravid to VVS Laxman. No partnership for them today though, at least not in the auction room.

11.46 am

Rahul Sharma, the legspinner who caused quite a sensation a few seasons ago, has an opening bid of 30 lakh from CSK, who bag him for that price.

11.45 am

Pragyan Ojha is the first name up amongst spinners. Mumbai make the opening bid of 50 lakh for the spinner they released. They used their Right to Match card for Ojha and then released him. Now they have him back at a considerably cheaper 50 lakh with no other bids.

11.42 am

Another one of the exciting breed of young New Zealand bowlers, Adam Milne, under the hammer now. RCB make the first bid at 30 lakh and CSK make a late entry.

If Milne gets his radar right, he could be more than a handful with his pace – no matter what pitch the match is played on. RCB’s bigger budget wins out, with Stephen Fleming having a wry look as Milne goes to RCB for 70 lakh.

11.39 am

Ben Hilfenhaus, the veteran Australian, is up at a base price of 1 crore. Too high, too few spots for foreigners, too little budget left. Unsold.

11.38 am

Sean Abbott is up next at 50 lakh. Will he get an opening bid? He will, from RCB, and also from Mumbai. Steady bidding and the price hits the 1 crore mark, and RCB get him for an even 1 crore.

The carnival of the Royal Challengers – will make for quite a change from how his last few months have gone. Good on Abbott.

11.35 am

Abhimanyu Mithun has had a reasonable season with Karnataka and can wield the long handle. But no bids, even at 30 lakh. Unsold.

11.34 am

And here is Zaheer Khan. For me, he was as much of a Man of the Series in India’s World Cup 2011 win as Yuvraj was. He won’t attract the same price though. In fact, he attracts no bids at all. There is a cloud with a dark lining on his fitness. Unsold.

11.33 am

Munaf Patel, he of the smile and the disarming straightforwardness of speech, is up at 50 lakh. No bids, so Munaf remains unsold.

11.32 am

Jaydev Unadkat has an IPL five-for to his credit, and a Test match to his name. Chennai make the opening bid of 50 lakh. But Delhi want their bowler back, and get him for 1.1 crore.

11.30 am

And Boult joins Steyn at Hyderabad for 3.8 crore. I wouldn’t want to open the batting against them.

11.27 am

But just when it looked like the bids were petering out, SRH enter the fray. They’ll have a problem of plenty in overseas players if they get Boult, but RCB up the ante to 3.5 crore.

11.26 am

Both RCB and MI are keen on getting Boult. His bid has hit 3 crore.

11.22 am

Trent Boult should get the purse strings loosened surely. Mumbai open the bidding at 50 lakh, but RCB also want the New Zealand left-armer who can swing it around corners on his day.

11.21 am

SRH’s superior purse wins the day. Praveen Kumar sold to them for 2.2 crore, will join Steyn, Ishant and Bhuvneshwar.

Pankaj Singh (30 lakh) under the hammer now. Will he have better luck at this auction than the last? Or at least better luck than he had on Test debut? Doesn’t look like it. No takers for Pankaj.

11.18 am

Seamers up now, with Praveen Kumar the first one under the hammer. He replaced Zaheer Khan last year in Mumbai’s team after going unsold at the auction, but he won’t go unsold today. CSK and SRH in the race for Praveen, and his price goes past 1 crore quickly.

11.16 am

Wayne Parnell is at a relatively low 30 lakh, but teams are running out of overseas slots, which could explain the lack of interest. Unsold.

The last one in this lot is Laxmi Ratan Shukla at 30 lakh. He gets one bid, from Sunrisers Hyderabad, and that’s the only one. Sold to SRH for 30 lakh.

11.13 am

Here’s Darren Sammy. His team has just lost, but he had a good outing, with 89 off 67. And RCB open the bidding for the West Indies allrounder at 1 crore.

DD also in it, but RCB have the wherewithal to hold off the Delhi challenge. And Sammy will have a new home at Bangalore for 2.8 crore.

11.11 am

And Rajasthan Royals bag Chris Morris for 1.4 crore.

11.10 am

Over in Nelson meanwhile, there was a contest that was not as tight a the bidding for Morris. Ireland beat West Indies and it’s not even an upset.

11.10 am

Irfan Pathan has always found interest among franchises in the IPL. Not this time though. Unsold at 1.5 crore base price.

Chris Morris (50 lakh), a former Chennai Super Kings player attracts an opening bid from Rajasthan. Delhi show belated interest, and the Royals table doesn’t look happy initially at having to enter a bidding war. But they’re quite keen on Morris and the bidding is now past a crore.

11.06 am

Ravi Bopara is up next at 1 crore and finds an opening bid from Sunrisers. It’s the only bid, and Bopara will join Morgan and Pietersen in the SRH England players club.

11.05 am

Tillakaratne Dilshan has also given himself a fairly high 1.5 crore base price. Way too high if you ask me. The franchises, for a wonder, concur with me. No bids.

11.04 am

Marlon Samuels, a former Pune Warriors player, has priced himself at 1.5 crore. No bids. Might have helped if he had smashed the Ireland bowlers today in Nelson, but he made only 21 off 41.

11.03 am

It’s allrounders now. James Neesham, released by DD, is first up at 30 lakh. He wasn’t in the New Zealand World Cup squad, but many think he was unlucky to miss out.

And here’s KKR, they have woken up with their first bid of the day. But Rajasthan also want Neesham and the bids are coming steadily. KKR have the bid at 50 lakh, and they get Neesham for that price.

11.01 am

Morne van Wyk (30 lakh), Kusal Perera (30 lakh), Denesh Ramdin (50 lakh) go unsold. Brendan Taylor (30 lakh) was with SRH last year, but no takers this year. No wicketkeeper was sold.

10.58 am

And here’s Ronchi with a base price of just 30 lakh. No bids? No bids! No bids.

10.57 am

Wicketkeepers up next. Watch out for Luke Ronchi.

But first it’s Matthew Wade (1 crore), and he has no takers.

10.56 am

Michael Carberry (50 lakh), goes unsold. That ends the first lot of batsmen.

10.55 am

Cheteshwar Pujara has a base price of 1 crore. Too high? Sadly, the franchises seem to concur.

Has a door opened to the English county season for Pujara? Perhaps.

10.54 am

Michael Hussey – the ageless wonder – is up next. He has a high base price of 1.5 crore. Is that a deterrent? Not for Chennai, who want their old stalwart back. The opening bid will be the closing bid. Hussey is back home, so to speak.

10.52 am

S Badrinath had gone unsold last time with a base price of 1 crore. He has slashed it to 30 lakh now, but franchises have tighter budgets. The stalwart from Tamil Nadu, who is leading Vidarbha against his home state in the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal, finds an opening bid with RCB.

Come to think of it, RCB might need a stabiliser in there amidst flashy batsmen all round. They get him for 30 lakh.

10.50 am

Cameron White, with a base price of 1.5 crore, goes the same way as Hales. No bids.

10.50 am

Alex Hales, with a base price of 1 crore, is probably priced too high for franchises who are already mostly well settled. No bids, no surprise.

10.49 am

Ross Taylor has been a popular man at the IPL in the past, but off late, the bidding for him has been strangely lukewarm. No opening bids at the 1 crore base price.

10.48 am

We are back live with the auction to draw the next lot, with batsmen up.

Brad Hodge has a base price of 1 crore, but no takers. Rajasthan Royals released him and aren’t in the buying back game.

10.46 am

So SRH have the highest budget now with 16.95 crore left. Delhi began with 39.75, but have spent 27 crore already.

Laxman, still on air, explains that SRH wanted batting to have depth, and with their new buys, the middle order looks a quality one, though picking only four overseas players will be tough.

Trivia: Dale Steyn and Pietersen share a birthday. The day itself (June 27) will be slightly after the IPL, but maybe SRH can have a party earlier if both fire.

10.43 am

VVS Laxman is on air, and as usual, is all smiles. Today he has more reason to be also, with SRH bagging Pietersen, Eoin Morgan and Williamson for a combined budget of 4.1 crore. Three match-winners at one quarter of the highest bid today, why wouldn’t you be smiling?

“I think the balance is what we are really concentrating on. Hopefully we can pick up some good allrounders too,” says Laxman. He explains that it was tough playing two legspinners in Hyderabad, which meant they had to let go of Mishra – though they still couldn’t let go entirely and gave it a fair go in bidding again.

10.40 am

Hemant Dua, the DD chief executive, says they didn’t expect RCB to bid for Yuvraj again, calling it “slightly strange”. He says Yuvraj brings a lot more beyond the field and gives Delhi the “icon player” they lacked.

10.39 am

Tom Moody says the intention wasn’t to select Pietersen as a captain in Sunrisers and he has been selected as a batsman. On Amit Mishra, “You don’t want to see any of the players who have been with your squad for a couple of years let go, but we had to have other options to consider as the auction unfolds to balance the financial sides of things.”

10.37 am

That was a strange opening session, to put it mildly. Yuvraj Singh going for 16 crore will be the headline of the day, closely followed by how hard RCB tried to get him back, even going up to 15.5 crore. The big monies have been spent, and this is how the teams look like now:

Number of players: 17 (10 slots left)

Overseas players: 6 (3 slots left)

Budget Left: 4.8 crore

***

Number of players: 14 (13 slots left)

Overseas players: 5 (4 slots left)

Budget Left: 12.75 crore

***

Number of players: 20 (7 slots left)

Overseas players: 7 (2 slots left)

Budget Left: 9.6 crore

***

Number of players: 16 (11 slots left)

Overseas players: 7 (2 slots left)

***

Number of players: 17 (10 slots left)

Overseas players: 5 (4 slots left)

Budget Left: 6.805 crore

***

Number of players: 19 (8 slots left)

Overseas players: 6 (3 slots left)

Budget Left: 12.75 crore

***

Number of players: 18 (9 slots left)

Overseas players: 5 (4 slots left)

Budget Left: 10.3 crore

***

Number of players: 16 (11 slots left)

Overseas players: 6 (3 slots left)

Budget Left: 16.95 crore

10.25 am

Apparently not. No takers for Morgan, but at the last moment, SRH make an entry with an opening bid, fractionally ahead of Mumbai who also belatedly raised their paddle. But Mumbai aren’t interested in going any higher, and SRH bag Morgan for 1.5 crore.

It’s interesting that they have got all players at or near base prices. And all established international stars.

10.23 am

The last lot in the marquee players is Eoin Morgan. He’s at 1.5 crore. Will he have better luck at the auction than he has had leading England so far?

10.22 am

Delhi are out as Finch crosses the 3 crore mark, and Finch will join Mumbai Indians for 3.2 crore. Relatively higher price, but still a value buy.

10.20 am

Ricky Ponting should know Finch’s game pretty well. And MI continue to be in the fray, while Finch goes to 2.6 crore on Delhi’s bid.

10.19 am

It’s back to a Mumbai-Delhi contest. Both franchises in the fray for Finch with bids progressing steadily. Finch has hit the 2 crore mark.

10.18 am

Aaron Finch, Mishra’s erstwhile SRH teammate, is up next. Why did SRH let him go? Who knows? Will they bid for him again? Not to start with.

Mumbai open the bidding at 1 crore.

10.17 am

And Amit Mishra will be a Daredevil for 3.5 crore. Delhi get the leggie.

10.15 am

It’s SRH against DD now. Two of the three franchises who have monies in the bank in this auction. RCB, the third, aren’t in the fray.

Amit Mishra is up to 3 crore now, and Delhi have it against Hyderabad.

10.14 am

SRH are in the fray now, and Rajasthan have dropped out. Bid is up to 1.8 crore now, and crosses 2 crore.

What is with teams bidding fiercely for players they have released?

10.13 am

Mumbai enter the fray. “Don’t stop now Rajasthan, you just started,” Madley tells Dravid, eliciting a laugh, and after a while, a bid.

Mumbai have Anil Kumble in the set-up and Shreyas Gopal. A proper leggie club being formed? Not if Dravid can help it. Bids still on.

10.11 am

Amit Mishra, the leggie who hasn’t always found favour with the Indian team, is up next. He’s had IPL hat-tricks, and can bat a bit. Was bought via SRH’s Right to Match card, but released.

Rajasthan open the bidding at 1 crore.

10.10 am

And RCB bag Dinesh Karthik for 10.5 crore. High price, but at least this one makes cricketing sense. RCB had let go of Parthiv Patel and need a frontline, Indian wicketkeeper batsman, and Karthik fits every bill.

10.09 am

RCB seem determined to go big on one player at least. Karthik is at 9.5 crore and Delhi are in a huddle, before going out. At least they didn’t go past the 12 crore they had bid last year for a released player.

But here are SRH with a 10 crore bid. New bidding against RCB.

10.08 am

RCB raise to 2.8 – at which point the on-a-tight-budget Chennai drop out. But hello – here’s Delhi bidding furiously for the player they released. The price has shot up to 8 crore.

Second pitched battle between RCB and DD, after Yuvraj. If this was WWE, there would have been a rivalry built up and chair shots.

10.06 am

Dinesh Karthik follows his erstwhile Delhi captain under hammer. And straightaway, RCB make a bid. They need a wicketkeeper-batsman. But Chennai are also in it now.

10.05 am

And Kevin Pietersen is up next. Will Delhi do an RCB and bid for him? The base price is 2 crore.

No bids? Here are the Sunrisers. Pietersen didn’t have a good IPL 2014, but after knee surgery and a getting-everything-off-chest autobiogrophy, he was superb in the Big Bash League. SRH get Pietersen for 2 crore. Another steal after Kane Williamson. That top order is suddenly looking great with Warner also there.

10.03 am

Next lot up. Mahela Jayawardene follows Sangakkara. It’s the Sri Lankan batting order. Base price of 1 crore. But if Sanga didn’t get sold, can Mahela go? He won’t. Stays unsold.

10.01 am

Do we have an opening bid for Kumar Sangakkara? I think teams are still recovering from the Yuvraj sale. No bids. Surprising. Sangakkara has been in red hot form.

10.00 am

And Yuvraj is sold to Delhi for a whopping, eye-popping 16 crore. A nice little pay rise for him. Well done to India’s Man of the Series from the 2011 World Cup.

09.59 am

Who will Yuvraj Singh go to? It’s up to 16 crore and the bid is with Delhi.

How many would have predicted anyone – let alone Yuvraj again – breaking last year’s 14-crore ceiling? The correct answer is anyone who perhaps knew that RCB’s auction strategy was drawn up by someone, to quote David Thorne, wielding the business plan equivalent of a two-year-old child poking itself in the eye with a spoon.

09.57 am

Delhi have the bid at 15 crore. RCB should either fire their planning department, or give them a sky-high pay rise – assuming their plan all along was to eat into Delhi’s budget for a more level playing field later on in the auction.

09.56 am

Yuvraj Singh will get a pay rise will he? RCB just bid 13.5 crore for him, but DD take it to 14 crore.

And RCB take it to 14.5 crore. Releasing him has to be their most daft decision in a litany of daft decisions.

09.54 am

Delhi raise the paddle for 9 crore and RCB make it 9.5. The bidding goes on. RCB seem determined to ensure Yuvraj doesn’t suffer a pay cut. I have no idea why they released him. They have it at 11.5, but Delhi make it 12 crore.

09.53 am

Delhi enter at 4 crore, but Rahul Dravid wants Yuvraj. Rajasthan have rarely gone so aggressively for a player. Yuvraj is up at 5 crore and the bid is with Delhi. Have RR hit their ceiling?

They have. And RCB are back in it at 5.5 crore. Does RCB have a method in its madness? I don’t know, but Yuvraj has pushed 8.5 crore and its with RCB.

09.52 am

And here is Yuvraj Singh. Will he break the bank – or whatever is left of it – this time around?

Will KKR go hard for him like they did in the last auction? Rajasthan Royals make the opening 2 crore bid. But KXIP, Yuvraj’s old franchise, want him back too. Yuvraj’s price has quickly gone to 3.8 crore.

09.50 am

And Sunrisers have Kane Williamson for 60 lakh. A steal, I’d say.

09.50 am

Sunrisers Hyderabad, who need to beef up their batting, make the opening bid for Kane Williamson, thus ensuring Indian audiences will see the 24-year-old in IPL action for the first time.

RCB back in the bidding game, and they are going up against SRH. The bidding isn’t as fast and furious as it was for Mathews, which is surprising.

09.48 am

Delhi need a captain too. Mathews could fit in nicely there.

And up now is Kane Williamson. The man Brendon McCullum said could be ‘the best New Zealand batsman ever’. He’s up at 50 lakh.

09.47 am

And the RCB team raise their paddle to make it 7 crore. Delhi have plenty of monies to play around with too, and raise it to 7.5 crore. Will RCB continue? They are in pensive discussions for now.

Vijay Mallya has the beginnings of a frown on his face and RCB are out of the bidding. Mathews will be a Delhi Daredevil for 7.5 crore.

09.45 am

Delhi have taken it up a notch for Mathews, with a bid of 3.8 crore. Mumbai ensure Mathews will break the 4 crore barrier. Ricky Ponting at the Mumbai table is chewing gum, looking as calm as ever, though less flinty-eyed than he was when out in the middle.

Ponting remains cool, even as RCB enter the bidding and MI drop out. It’s between RCB and DD now, and Mathews hits 6 crore.

09.43 am

Delhi Daredevils are also interested in Mathews. It’s between Mumbai and Delhi now. Which is interesting because right now, the two cities are battling it out in the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal too in faraway Cuttack. Our man Sidhanta Patnaik is at that game.

But in Bangalore, bids for Mathews have crossed 3 crore.

09.42 am

Angelo Mathews went unsold in 2014, but has since set world cricket alight with batting, captaincy and useful bowling.

Starting price of 1.5 crore. And the Mumbai Indians open the bidding for the Sri Lankan captain.

09.41 am

And M Vijay crosses 3 crore, with Preity Zinta raising her paddle. Interestingly, both Zinta and Ness Wadia are sitting at the KXIP table. No sign of animosity or the case slapped against each other.

And Vijay will be part of the exciting KXIP stable. Sold for 3 crore.

09.39 am

Preity Zinta is raising her paddle with a determined look. Vijay Mallya at the RCB table looks pensive. Where will ‘Monk’ land up? Partying in Bangalore or having a ball in Mohali?

He’s gone past 2 crore now, and the both franchises are still in it.

09.38 am

Next up – M Vijay. Not likely to be no bids now. He has a base price of 50 lakh.

Chennai make the opening bid. Only one bid? No, the Kings XI come in. The two powerhouses are fighting it out for Vijay. Chennai take it up to a crore and Punjab raise to 1.1 crore.

Chennai drop out, and RCB enter. It’s between KXIP and RCB now.

09.36 am

And we’re set. Richard Madley has the hammer. The currency is, of course, Indian rupees.

Ranjib Biswal draws out the first name. Hashim Amla under the hammer.

Base price of 2 crore for South Africa’s Test captain, and one of the most likeable cricketers in the world. No bids. That’s surprising. Lukewarm start to the auction.

09.34 am

Ranjib Biswal, IPL chairman, takes the mic now. I spoke too soon of yesterday’s news. He’s congratulated the Indian team for their win against Pakistan.

09.33 am

Right, so India-Pakistan is done and dusted. India have improved their World Cup record against the old foes to a tennis bagel-like 6-0. The defeat made Javed Miandad come out with some stinging criticism. But that is already yesterday’s news.

Today, we’re set for the auction. Sundar Raman opens the proceedings. He reminds franchises that unsold players from today will be available as replacements should any injuries occur. A player needs to have submitted his name for the auction to be eligible as a replacement.

There are no Right to Match cards this time, but there will be a Tie-Breaker, in case bids are locked and budgets exhausted.

09.28 am

All of Kings XI Punjab, Rajasthan Royals, Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings have settled teams and might only be looking to add players in a slot or two. Punjab will probably want a quality bowler, while Kolkata might be happy with some more batting firepower up front – but then who isn’t.

Rajasthan have a budget of 12.75 crore, but I will be vastly surprised if they hit even 10 crore in spending. Chennai have only 4.8 crore to play with – the least of all teams this year – and will either go for two or three value picks or win one bidding war for one player.

Mumbai Indians i have a little over 10 crore, and might be tempted to add some overseas batting weight at the top of the order, having released Michael Hussey.

09.21 am

There aren’t going to be as many bidding wars in this auction as there were last year – given the vastly reduced budgets available. But Delhi, who have dismantled last year’s wooden-spoon-winning squad, have the monies to rebuild completely. They suffered from a lack of quality bowlers last time around, though the loss of Nathan Coulter-Nile to injury and the batsmen’s indifferent form didn’t help.

There are options for Delhi to choose from to rebuild – if they don’t want to buy back previously released players. Kumar Sangakkara (back in the auction after skipping last year) and Hashim Amla (in the auction for the first time), are calm steadying heads any franchise might love to have. Among the exciting bowlers, there’s Trent Boult, Adam Milne, Sean Abbott and the like.

Royal Challengers Bangalore also have a hefty 20.8 crore budget, having released the 14-crore Yuvraj Singh. A gaping hole in RCB, who have also traded out Parthiv Patel, is a wicketkeeper-batsman who can bat in the top order. Will they be eyeing Dinesh Karthik?

Hyderabad have 21.05 crore. They made the slightly perplexing decisions to let go of Aaron Finch and Darren Sammy – both of whom should be in high demand from other franchises – but they now need some stabilising influences in the batting, with the bowling looking healthy as it is. M Vijay, who is also in the auction, could be a good fit to join his Test match opening partner Shikhar Dhawan. There’s also the veteran talents of Ross Taylor, Michael Hussey and Brad Hodge to pick from.

Two players who’s names I will closely be following are Cheteshwar Pujara and Zaheer Khan – for vastly different reasons. Pujara was released by the highly successful Kings XI Punjab franchise, and has seemed not entirely at ease in the slam-bang format. Will he find a home this time? His Test fortunes have also taken a dip, which is a further blow. Pujara, however, is nothing if not a man always on the lookout to improve his game.

Zaheer hasn’t bowled in competitive cricket since – well since forever. What is his fitness like? The fierceness – or otherwise – while bidding for him will be a good indicator. There is little doubt that a fit Zaheer is an asset to any side, including the Indian team doing duty in the 2015 World Cup right now. But is he fit?

09.10 am

Here’s how the squads stack up right now:

Number of players: 17 (10 slots left)

Overseas players: 6 (3 slots left)

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Delhi Daredevils: JP Duminy, Kedar Jadhav, Manoj Tiwary, Mohammed Shami, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Quinton De Kock, Saurabh Tiwary, Shahbaz Nadeem, Mayank Agarwal, Imran Tahir, Jayant Yadav.

Number of players: 11 (16 slots left)

Overseas players: 4 (5 slots left)

***

Number of players: 19 (8 slots left)

Overseas players: 7 (2 slots left)

***

Number of players: 16 (11 slots left)

Overseas players: 7 (2 slots left)

***

Number of players: 16 (11 slots left)

Overseas players: 6 (3 slots left)

***

Number of players: 19 (8 slots left)

Overseas players: 6 (3 slots left)

***

Number of players: 17 (10 slots left)

Overseas players: 5 (4 slots left)

***

Number of players: 13 (14 slots left)

Overseas players: 3 (6 slots left)

***

08.57 am

Hello and welcome to yet another edition of the Indian Premier League auctions – otherwise known as the most exciting phase of the IPL. At least for on a personal note. The stratagems and spoils that form part of a live auction are infinitely more complex, intriguing and cerebral than the actual Twenty20 battles – unless you get AB de Villiers taking on Dale Steyn.

This year’s auction isn’t going to be as big as the one in 2014, but it should still see plenty of action. Last year’s was the biggest auction in the league’s short history, so it’s only to be expected that the ones following that will be quieter affairs.

Still – thanks largely to Delhi Daredevils and Sunrisers Hyderabad – this year’s affair will have a good sprinkling of marquee names. Both Delhi and Hyderabad have gone in for squad overhauls, meaning the likes of Kevin Pietersen and Aaron Finch, Dinesh Karthik and Yuvraj Singh, are all up for grabs.

There should be considerable interest around upcoming international stars such as Kane Williamson, Luke Ronchi, Trent Boult – all leading a strong New Zealand contingent who should be in demand – Eoin Morgan, Sean Abbott, and the prominent Indian players such as M Vijay, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha and Irfan Pathan.

Delhi and Hyderabad will be the ones looking out for the most players – having let go of a considerable number of players. Delhi released 13 players, while Hyderabad released 11.

Here are the budgets (in INR) that each franchise is left with, heading into the auctions for IPL 8.

Chennai Super Kings – 4.8 crore

Delhi Daredevils – 39.75 crore

Kings XI Punjab – 12.6 crore

Kolkata Knight Riders – 13.2 crore

Mumbai Indians – 10.005 crore

Rajasthan Royals – 12.75 crore

Royal Challengers Bangalore – 20.8 crore

Sunrisers Hyderabad – 21.05 crore

04.39 pm

Some interesting numbers before ending what has been a hugely fun, if hugely hectic, live-blogging session over two days. Keeping the figures (in crores) of 12.5, 9.5, 7.5, 5.5 and 4 that the IPL had set out as what franchises would lose for five retentions, some interesting trends have emerged post-auction.

The team that has spent the most on capped Indians is CSK, who shelled out 39 crore – nearly two thirds of their purse – on MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Ashish Nehra and Mohit Sharma. To no one’s surprise at all, RR shelled out the least on capped players, Stuart Binny counted in the uncapped category because he hadn’t made his debut when he was retained and cost the side only 4 crore. That apart, only Ajinkya Rahane and Abhishek Nayar are the capped Indians. Also predictably enough, RR have spent the highest on uncapped players, with 14.3 crore shelled out. RCB spent only 1.8 crore on uncapped players, but when just four of their players – Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and Yuvraj Singh – cost 43.5 crore, that was to be expected.

Overseas stars were the highest in demand for KXIP, who shelled out 33.95 crore. But when you have an overseas line-up that reads David Miller, Mitchell Johnson, George Bailey, Shaun Marsh, Thisara Perera, Glenn Maxwell and Beuran Hendricks, even that figure looks like a bargain.

There’ll be lots more detail on team spends on Wisden India, which can be pursued at leisure. Until then, it’s goodbye from the live updates for now.

04.09 pm

RCB and DD have exhausted their budgets. MI have only 5 lakh left, while CSK have 20 lakh. RR have 5.55 crore but end up with the largest squad, having 25 members. CSK have the smallest squad with just 20 players. No franchise has gone the whole hog with overseas players, with all having between 7 and 8, where 9 was the maximum allowable limit.

Here’s how the final squads look:

Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Faf du Plessis, Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Smith, Ashish Nehra, Mohit Sharma, Samuel Badree, Ben Hilfenhaus, Matt Henry, B Aparajith, Mithun Manhas, Ishwar Pandey, Pawan Negi, Vijay Shankar, Ronit More, John Hastings. Budget left: 20 lakh. Squad Strength: 20. Overseas Players: 8.

Delhi Daredevils: M Vijay, Kevin Pietersen, Dinesh Karthik, JP Duminy, Manoj Tiwary, Quinton de Kock, Mohammed Shami, Rahul Sharma, Saurabh Tiwary, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Jaydev Unadkat, James Neesham, Kedar Jadhav, Mayank Agarwal, Rahul Shukla, Siddharth Kaul, Shahbaz Nadeem, Ross Taylor, Milind Kumar, Wayne Parnell, HS Sharath, Jayant Yadav. Squad Strength: 23. Overseas Players: 7. Budget: None left.

Kings XI Punjab: David Miller, Manan Vohra, Virender Sehwag, Mitchell Johnson, George Bailey, Cheteshwar Pujara, Shaun Marsh, Wriddhaman Saha, Thisara Perera, Glenn Maxwell, L Balaji, Parvinder Awana, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Mandeep Singh, Rishi Dhawan, Anureet Singh, Sandeep Sharma, Akshar Patel, Beuran Hendricks, Karanveer Singh, Murali Kartik, Shivam Sharma, Shardul Thakur. Squad Strength: 23. Overseas Players: 7. Budget left: 4.1 crore.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir, Sunil Narine, Jacques Kallis, Robin Uthappa, Yusuf Pathan, Shakib Al Hasan, Umesh Yadav, Vinay Kumar, Morne Morkel, Piyush Chawla, Manish Pandey, Suryakumar Yadav, Manvinder Bisla, Ryan ten Doeschate, Kuldeep Yadav, Veer Pratap Singh, Chris Lynn, Andre Russell, SS Mandal, Pat Cummins, Debabrata Das. Squad Strength: 21. Overseas Players: 8. Budget left: 1 crore.

Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Lasith Malinga, Kieron Pollard, Harbhajan Singh, Ambati Rayudu, Michael Hussey, Zaheer Khan, Pragyan Ojha, Corey Anderson, Josh Hazlewood, CM Gautam, Aditya Tare, Sushant Marathe, Jasprit Bumrah, Shreyas Gopal, Jalaj Saxena, Apoorv Wankhade, Marchant de Lange, Krishmar Santokie, Ben Dunk, Pawan Suyal. Squad Strength: 21. Overseas Players: 7. Budget left: 5 lakh.

Rajasthan Royals: Shane Watson, Ajinkya Rahane, James Faulkner, Stuart Binny, Sanju Samson, Brad Hodge, Steven Smith, Abhishek Nayar, Ben Cutting, Kane Richardson, Tim Southee, Unmukt Chand, Ankush Bains, Rajat Bhatia, Kevon Cooper, Iqbal Abdulla, Dhawal Kulkarni, Pravin Tambe, Karun Nair, Dishant Yagnik, Vikramjeet Malik, Rahul Tewatia, Ankit Sharma, Amit Mishra, Deepak Hooda. Squad Strength: 25. Overseas Players: 8. Budget left: 5.55 crore.

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers, Yuvraj Singh, Parthiv Patel, Albie Morkel, Mitchell Starc, Ashok Dinda, Ravi Rampaul, Muttiah Muralitharan, Nic Maddinson, Varun Aaron, Vijay Zol, Abu Nechim Ahmed, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shadab Jakati, Sandeep Warrier, Harshal Patel, Tanmay Mishra, Sachin Rana, Yogesh Takawale. Squad Strength: 21. Overseas Players: 7. Budget: None left.

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Shikhar Dhawan, Dale Steyn, David Warner, Darren Sammy, Amit Mishra, Aaron Finch, Irfan Pathan, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Brendan Taylor, Moises Henriques, Venugopala Rao, Jason Holder, S Aniruddha, Manprit Juneja, KL Rahul, Parveez Rasool, Prashanth Parameshwaran, Karn Sharma, Amit Paunikar, Naman Ojha, Ricky Bhui, Ashish Reddy, Chama Milind. Squad Strength: 24. Overseas Players: 7. Budget left: 1 crore.

04.00 pm

Sundar Raman asks franchises if any of the unsold players from the last list need to be brought back. No, they don’t, say franchises.

154 players sold, including 50 overseas players, over two hectic days. Probably 1000s of analyses done. A million arguments on prices. And countless words typed.

03.58 pm

Udit Patel is back, but dad Brijesh Patel is sitting at a table with the RCB purse exhausted. No bids.

Jayant Yadav gets a 10 lakh bid from Delhi and goes there at base price. Samad Fallah invited back again, will he find a bidder this time? No takers this time too.

And the last player to go under the hammer in the IPL 2014 auctions is Reeza Hendricks at a base price of 20 lakh. No final hurrah then, and he goes unsold.

“Alas,” says Madley and that is that.

03.56 pm

Sachin Baby is back and looking for a 20 lakh bid. But no takers.

Will Evin Lewis have better luck? No, he won’t. Unsold. S Aravind comes up now, and he too goes unsold.

Pawan Suyal however, gets a 10 lakh bid from Mumbai Indians, his old franchise, and they get him at base price.

03.54 pm

KKR bid for Debabrata Das too, and get him too at base price. Gone for 20 lakh.

Down to ten players now. Ben Dunk, the Australian wicketkeeper-batsman, up for the third time. Mumbai make the bid, and buy the player for 20 lakh.

Yogesh Takawale is up next and RCB bid their last remaining 10 lakh on him. No other bids, so RCB get him and exhaust their budget.

03.52 pm

We’re back for the final session of the IPL 2014 player auctions. Only 12 players up for this lot.

Pat Cummins is back for a third time. Base price of 1 crore, and KKR jump in and buy him at base price. They had James Pattinson earlier, so one promising, but injury prone Aussie quick for another, then.

03.43 pm

How do the teams look? DD and RCB are down to 10 lakh each. CSK have 20 lakh while MI have 35. In squad strengths, RR lead the way with 25 people and they have room for only two more players, of which only one can be an overseas player since they already have eight. Their remaining budget is 5.55 crore – of which they’re unlikely to use a large chunk.

SRH have 24 players and 1 crore left. KKR and MI have only 19 players each, with KKR left with 2.2 crore. KXIP have a hefty 4.1 crore remaining.

Delhi Daredevils: M Vijay, Kevin Pietersen, Dinesh Karthik, JP Duminy, Manoj Tiwary, Quinton de Kock, Mohammad Shami, Rahul Sharma, Saurabh Tiwary, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Jaydev Unadkat, James Neesham, Kedar Jadhav, Mayank Agarwal, Rahul Shukla, Siddharth Kaul, Shahbaz Nadeem, Ross Taylor, Milind Kumar, Wayne Parnell, HS Sharath. Budget left: 10 lakh. Squad Strength: 22. Overseas Players: 7.

Kings XI Punjab: David Miller, Manan Vohra, Virender Sehwag, Mitchell Johnson, George Bailey, Cheteshwar Pujara, Shaun Marsh, Wriddhaman Saha, Thisara Perera, Glenn Maxwell, L Balaji, Parvinder Awana, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Mandeep Singh, Rishi Dhawan, Anureet Singh, Sandeep Sharma, Akshar Patel, Beuran Hendricks, Karanveer Singh, Murali Kartik, Shivam Sharma, Shardul Thakur. Budget left: 4.1 crore. Squad Strength: 23. Overseas Players: 7.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir, Sunil Narine, Jacques Kallis, Robin Uthappa, Yusuf Pathan, Shakib Al Hasan, Umesh Yadav, Vinay Kumar, Morne Morkel, Piyush Chawla, Manish Pandey, Suryakumar Yadav, Manvinder Bisla, Ryan ten Doeschate, Kuldeep Yadav, Veer Pratap Singh, Chris Lynn, Andre Russell, SS Mandal. Budget left: 2.2 crore. Squad Strength: 19. Overseas Players: 7.

Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Lasith Malinga, Kieron Pollard, Harbhajan Singh, Ambati Rayudu, Michael Hussey, Zaheer Khan, Pragyan Ojha, Corey Anderson, Josh Hazlewood, CM Gautam, Aditya Tare, Sushant Marathe, Jasprit Bumrah, Shreyas Gopal, Jalaj Saxena, Apoorv Wankhade, Marchant de Lange, Krishmar Santokie. Budget left: 35 lakh. Squad Strength: 19. Overseas Players: 7.

Rajasthan Royals: Shane Watson, Ajinkya Rahane, James Faulkner, Stuart Binny, Sanju Samson, Brad Hodge, Steven Smith, Abhishek Nayar, Ben Cutting, Kane Richardson, Tim Southee, Unmukt Chand, Ankush Bains, Rajat Bhatia, Kevon Cooper, Iqbal Abdulla, Dhawal Kulkarni, Pravin Tambe, Karun Nair, Dishant Yagnik, Vikramjeet Malik, Rahul Tewatia, Ankit Sharma, Amit Mishra, Deepak Hooda. Budget left: 5.55 crore. Squad Strength: 25. Overseas Players: 8.

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers, Yuvraj Singh, Parthiv Patel, Albie Morkel, Mitchell Starc, Ashok Dinda, Ravi Rampaul, Muttiah Muralitharan, Nic Maddinson, Varun Aaron, Vijay Zol, Abu Nechim Ahmed, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shadab Jakati, Sandeep Warrier, Harshal Patel, Tanmay Mishra, Sachin Rana. Budget left: 10 lakh. Squad Strength: 20. Overseas Players: 7.

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Shikhar Dhawan, Dale Steyn, David Warner, Darren Sammy, Amit Mishra, Aaron Finch, Irfan Pathan, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Brendan Taylor, Moises Henriques, Venugopala Rao, Jason Holder, S Aniruddha, Manprit Juneja, KL Rahul, Parveez Rasool, Prashanth Parameshwaran, Karn Sharma, Amit Paunikar, Naman Ojha, Ricky Bhui, Ashish Reddy, Chama Milind. Budget left: 1 crore. Squad Strength: 24. Overseas Players: 7.

03.28 pm

The first round of the accelerated auction is over. One last opportunity for franchises. Each one can submit a maximum of ten names from the unsold players and there will be the second, and final round, of the IPL 2014 auctions.

A short break for now.

Meanwhile, Corey Anderson sat through his first experience of being fought over yesterday, finally managing a huge grin as Mumbai Indians bought him for 4.25 crore. “I can’t say it’s sunk in yet. It still just looks like a number on a screen,” Anderson said on Thursday morning.

03.26 pm

Nicholas Beard up next. Unsold. Jason Behrendorff who played for Perth Scorchers in last year’s Champions League Twenty20 also unsold, as is Ronsford Beaton, the West Indies bowler.

Will Royston Dias find a buyer at 10 lakh? He won’t. The last player in the set is Rituraj Singh at 10 lakh. No bids from anywhere.

03.24 pm

Sunrisers now bid for Chama Milind for 10 lakh. And sold.

Madley is not hanging about. Quick, crisp bids and sales.

No bids for Umar Nazir. Michael Nesser gets some time from Madley though. Still no bids.

Shardul Thakur at 10 lakhs and KXIP make a bid. Will Mumbai enter? They do. How much will Shardul fetch? Not much more than his 10 lakh base price, but at 20 lakh for KXIP, it’s a good sum for the bowler and the franchise.

03.22 pm

Hardus Viljoen attracts no bids, but Shivam Sharma has a buyer in KXIP for his 10 lakh base price.

Avinash Yadav is up next. No buyers. Aniket Choudhary has no bids either. Will Miguel Cummins break the unsold streak that’s building? He won’t. Remains unsold.

Deepak Hooda does though, and what have we here? More than one bid! Rajasthan and Kolkata in the fray. The base price was 10 lakh, and Hooda goes to RR for 40 lakh.

03.18 pm

Sachin Rana is up next and RCB bid 20 lakh for him, successfully, as it turns out.

If two franchises have the same budget left and compete for the same player, there will be a tiebreaker. Madley says we’ll look into it when we come to it.

Will HS Sharath find a buyer at 10 lakh? He was mighty impressive in the Ranji Trophy, and here’s Delhi with a bid. No further bids, so Sharath will get the chance to polish his Hindi up north maybe.

03.16 pm

Sean Abbott unsold. Will Samad Fallah find a buyer for his 10 lakh base price? He’s been very consistent for Maharashtra, but no bids.

Amit Mishra, the pacer (not to be confused with SRH’s legspinner) up next. He gets a bid from Rajasthan Royals and they buy him for 10 lakh. The RR vs SRH scorecards should be interesting.

03.15 pm

Pawan Suyal, Abrar Kazi, Udit Patel unsold. Brijesh Patel at the RCB table doesn’t bid for son Udit.

Ankit Sharma finds a bidder though, to Rajasthan Royals for 10 lakh.

03.13 pm

Mitchell McClenaghan goes unsold, but Mumbai make another bid. Krishmar Santokie goes to Mumbai for 30 lakh, his base price.

Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Juan Theron have no bids.

Sunrisers in it now, bidding 20 lakhs for Ashish Reddy and getting him for that amount.

Madley is really speeding the auction up here.

03.11 pm

Wayne Parnell has a buyer in Delhi Daredevils. Goes for his base price of 1 crore.

Pankaj Singh still doesn’t find a buyer, but Marchant de Lange does, as the same 30 lakh base price. Mumbai Indians it is, who bag de Lange at his base price.

03.10 pm

Murali Kartik finds a bid on Day 2 and is bought by Punjab for 1 crore. © Getty Images

Murali Kartik finds a bid first up. KXIP, who don’t have too many spin options, buy him at his base price of 1 crore. Kartik will be a happy man. Still among the better spinners in India, for my money.

No takers for Doug Bollinger, Pat Cummins, Ryan McLaren, Adam Milne.

03.08 pm

We’re back. 37 bowlers up now. How will the squads change? Will they change at all?

Delhi Daredevils: M Vijay, Kevin Pietersen, Dinesh Karthik, JP Duminy, Manoj Tiwary, Quinton de Kock, Mohammad Shami, Rahul Sharma, Saurabh Tiwary, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Jaydev Unadkat, James Neesham, Kedar Jadhav, Mayank Agarwal, Rahul Shukla, Siddharth Kaul, Shahbaz Nadeem, Ross Taylor, Milind Kumar. Budget left: 1.2 crore. Squad Strength: 20. Overseas Players: 6.

Kings XI Punjab: David Miller, Manan Vohra, Virender Sehwag, Mitchell Johnson, George Bailey, Cheteshwar Pujara, Shaun Marsh, Wriddhaman Saha, Thisara Perera, Glenn Maxwell, L Balaji, Parvinder Awana, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Mandeep Singh, Rishi Dhawan, Anureet Singh, Sandeep Sharma, Akshar Patel, Beuran Hendricks, Karanveer Singh. Budget left: 5.4 crore. Squad Strength: 20. Overseas Players: 7.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir, Sunil Narine, Jacques Kallis, Robin Uthappa, Yusuf Pathan, Shakib Al Hasan, Umesh Yadav, Vinay Kumar, Morne Morkel, Piyush Chawla, Manish Pandey, Suryakumar Yadav, Manvinder Bisla, Ryan ten Doeschate, Kuldeep Yadav, Veer Pratap Singh, Chris Lynn, Andre Russell, SS Mandal. Budget left: 2.2 crore. Squad Strength: 19. Overseas Players: 7.

Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Lasith Malinga, Kieron Pollard, Harbhajan Singh, Ambati Rayudu, Michael Hussey, Zaheer Khan, Pragyan Ojha, Corey Anderson, Josh Hazlewood, CM Gautam, Aditya Tare, Sushant Marathe, Jasprit Bumrah, Shreyas Gopal, Jalaj Saxena, Apoorv Wankhade. Budget left: 95 lakh. Squad Strength: 17. Overseas Players: 5.

Rajasthan Royals: Shane Watson, Ajinkya Rahane, James Faulkner, Stuart Binny, Sanju Samson, Brad Hodge, Steven Smith, Abhishek Nayar, Ben Cutting, Kane Richardson, Tim Southee, Unmukt Chand, Ankush Bains, Rajat Bhatia, Kevon Cooper, Iqbal Abdulla, Dhawal Kulkarni, Pravin Tambe, Karun Nair, Dishant Yagnik, Vikramjeet Malik, Rahul Tewatia. Budget left: 6.15 crore. Squad Strength: 22. Overseas Players: 8.

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers, Yuvraj Singh, Parthiv Patel, Albie Morkel, Mitchell Starc, Ashok Dinda, Ravi Rampaul, Muttiah Muralitharan, Nic Maddinson, Varun Aaron, Vijay Zol, Abu Nechim Ahmed, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shadab Jakati, Sandeep Warrier, Harshal Patel, Tanmay Mishra. Budget left: 30 lakh. Squad Strength: 19. Overseas Players: 7.

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Shikhar Dhawan, Dale Steyn, David Warner, Darren Sammy, Amit Mishra, Aaron Finch, Irfan Pathan, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Brendan Taylor, Moises Henriques, Venugopala Rao, Jason Holder, S Aniruddha, Manprit Juneja, KL Rahul, Parveez Rasool, Prashanth Parameshwaran, Karn Sharma, Amit Paunikar, Naman Ojha, Ricky Bhui. Budget left: 1.3 crore. Squad Strength: 22. Overseas Players: 7.

02.59 pm

Ranjib Biswal, the IPL chairman, spoke on some of the pertinent auction and IPL issues:

On IPL cleaning up process: It’s a responsibility and I’m looking forward to it. We’ve started to do the groundwork of making IPL 7 a success story, a grand, popular tournament. For that, whatever measures need to be taken will be taken and put in place. I think IPL 7 will be a great show.

On Vijay Mallya’s protest about the bidding for Yuvraj Singh continuing after the auctioneer had initially ruled RCB had him for 10 crore: We had a governing council meeting, but at the end of the day, the auctioneer is the final authority to take the decision. And given that he took the decision, IPL decided to go by what the auctioneer’s action was.

On possible dates for IPL: We have a window from April 9 to June 3, and as the Sanjay Patel (BCCI secretary) said, we’re looking at options. We’ll be speaking to officials of the government of India and the ministry. We want to hold maximum number of matches in India, and if we get the green signal, then probably the whole tournament can be played in India.

On a cut-off date to decide venue: We’re trying to meet the Home Ministry officials next week. After that we’ll have a Governing Council meeting, where we plan to decide on the venue. We’re looking at another ten days time to sort out all this.

On measures taken ahead of season: Yes, we had a series of meetings with the franchisees where we dealt with all these issues. We should appreciate now that the anti-corruption unit is more active and we’ll be having an anti-corruption officer with the team, and to educate the players, we’re preparing a code of conduct and there’ll be a handbook, there’ll be visuals. The anti-corruption unit will be educating players on every issue.

On uncapped players in auctions: Basically, we didn’t want to differentiate between capped and uncapped players. We wanted uncapped players to get the value, and most of the uncapped players fetched good money. Some of them landed crores. So it’s a good beginning for these uncapped players who have played good cricket, and are aspiring to play for India. I believe this is a good intitative by the IPL and the Working Committee had ratified it. So it’s great for the players who perform in the domestic circuit.

02.57 pm

Sanjay Patel, the BCCI secretary, says they’re “considering a lot of options” for the possible venues for the IPL. “We’re meeting the home ministry to see the possible venues in India. Our main interest lies in carrying the IPL in India, but if not, South Africa is the preferred venue at the moment. But there is also a second and third option.”

An IPL in South Africa – how will that change equations for the way franchises have shaped up?

02.44 pm

SS Mandal finds a bid, with KKR buying him for 10 lakh.

No such luck for Hardik Pandya, Manan Sharma, Dhruv Singh.

Karanveer Singh to KXIP for 10 lakh.

That concludes the allrounders section. Bowlers up next. Will Praveen Kumar or Abhimanyu Mithun make it?

02.42 pm

Will Ashok Menaria find an IPL team? He has a base price of 30 lakh and can be a useful allrounder. No bids though, and none for Yogesh Nagar or Kevin O’Brien.

Rahul Tewatia is bought by Rajasthan Royals for 10 lakh. Amit Yadav, Jayant Yadav, Dwayne Pretorius, Pardeep Sahu also go unsold.

02.38 pm

Chennai enter the bidding with a 50 lakh bid for John Hastings. No other bids, so Hastings will be a Super King.

No takers for Andrew McDonald, Christopher Barnwell, Farveez Maharoof, David Wiese.

02.36 pm

Andre Russell gets the bids going. KKR want him, but so do MI. KKR have the higher purse left by far, and they get Russell. He goes to KKR for 60 lakhs.

Luke Wright is at a 1.5 crore base price. Too high, no bids. What of James Franklin at 50 lakh? No bids here too.

02.34 pm

Right we’re back now with the auctions. 24 players from among allrounders to go up now.

David Hussey, at 1 crore, which is too much for franchises to spend. Will Azhar Mahmood have better luck at the same base price? He doesn’t.

Angelo Mathews is at 2 crore. That base price seemed to high yesterday, so there’s little chance he’ll find a buyer today. And he doesn’t.

02.22 pm

Pietersen says he’d be very happy with any role in the DD set-up, whether leadership or otherwise. So who look like likely captaincy candidates at this time for each franchise? How about these? Most are straightforward picks of course:

CSK – MS Dhoni, DD – Kevin Pietersen, KXIP – George Bailey, KKR – Gautam Gambhir, MI – Rohit Sharma, RR – Shane Watson, RCB – Virat Kohli, SRH – Shikhar Dhawan.

02.18 pm

This list is not going to change too much now. Which squads look the strongest? Personally, I feel all of them look good. Franchises have cracked the IPL code and seem to have figured out what to do to build Twenty20-winning teams.

“I love the Delhi family and just to be associated with the IPL again is something I’m very proud about,” says Kevin Pietersen. He also agrees that all squads look good. “There have been some very interesting buys.”

Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Faf du Plessis, Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Smith, Ashish Nehra, Mohit Sharma, Samuel Badree, Ben Hilfenhaus, Matt Henry, B Aparajith, Mithun Manhas, Ishwar Pandey, Pawan Negi, Vijay Shankar, Ronit More. Budget left: 70 lakh. Squad Strength: 19. Overseas Players: 7.

Delhi Daredevils: M Vijay, Kevin Pietersen, Dinesh Karthik, JP Duminy, Manoj Tiwary, Quinton de Kock, Mohammad Shami, Rahul Sharma, Saurabh Tiwary, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Jaydev Unadkat, James Neesham, Kedar Jadhav, Mayank Agarwal, Rahul Shukla, Siddharth Kaul, Shahbaz Nadeem, Ross Taylor, Milind Kumar. Budget left: 1.2 crore. Squad Strength: 20. Overseas Players: 6.

Kings XI Punjab: David Miller, Manan Vohra, Virender Sehwag, Mitchell Johnson, George Bailey, Cheteshwar Pujara, Shaun Marsh, Wriddhaman Saha, Thisara Perera, Glenn Maxwell, L Balaji, Parvinder Awana, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Mandeep Singh, Rishi Dhawan, Anureet Singh, Sandeep Sharma, Akshar Patel, Beuran Hendricks. Budget left: 5.5 crore. Squad Strength: 19. Overseas Players: 7.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir, Sunil Narine, Jacques Kallis, Robin Uthappa, Yusuf Pathan, Shakib Al Hasan, Umesh Yadav, Vinay Kumar, Morne Morkel, Piyush Chawla, Manish Pandey, Suryakumar Yadav, Manvinder Bisla, Ryan ten Doeschate, Kuldeep Yadav, Veer Pratap Singh, Chris Lynn. Budget left: 2.9 crore. Squad Strength: 17. Overseas Players: 6.

Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Lasith Malinga, Kieron Pollard, Harbhajan Singh, Ambati Rayudu, Michael Hussey, Zaheer Khan, Pragyan Ojha, Corey Anderson, Josh Hazlewood, CM Gautam, Aditya Tare, Sushant Marathe, Jasprit Bumrah, Shreyas Gopal, Jalaj Saxena, Apoorv Wankhade. Budget left: 95 lakh. Squad Strength: 17. Overseas Players: 5.

Rajasthan Royals: Shane Watson, Ajinkya Rahane, James Faulkner, Stuart Binny, Sanju Samson, Brad Hodge, Steven Smith, Abhishek Nayar, Ben Cutting, Kane Richardson, Tim Southee, Unmukt Chand, Ankush Bains, Rajat Bhatia, Kevon Cooper, Iqbal Abdulla, Dhawal Kulkarni, Pravin Tambe, Karun Nair, Dishant Yagnik, Vikramjeet Malik. Budget left: 6.25 crore. Squad Strength: 21. Overseas Players: 8.

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers, Yuvraj Singh, Parthiv Patel, Albie Morkel, Mitchell Starc, Ashok Dinda, Ravi Rampaul, Muttiah Muralitharan, Nic Maddinson, Varun Aaron, Vijay Zol, Abu Nechim Ahmed, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shadab Jakati, Sandeep Warrier, Harshal Patel, Tanmay Mishra. Budget left: 30 lakh. Squad Strength: 19. Overseas Players: 7.

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Shikhar Dhawan, Dale Steyn, David Warner, Darren Sammy, Amit Mishra, Aaron Finch, Irfan Pathan, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Brendan Taylor, Moises Henriques, Venugopala Rao, Jason Holder, S Aniruddha, Manprit Juneja, KL Rahul, Parveez Rasool, Prashanth Parameshwaran, Karn Sharma, Amit Paunikar, Naman Ojha, Ricky Bhui. Budget left: 1.3 crore. Squad Strength: 22. Overseas Players: 7.

02.08 pm

Milind Kumar goes to Delhi for 10 lakh, but Nikhil Naik has no buyers.

Time for a 15-minute break.

02.07 pm

No bids for Vishant More. Will Natraj Behera find a buyer? No bids, and none for Prashant Chopra either.

RCB come into play however, and buy Tanmay Mishra for 10 lakh, his base price. The other Tanmay – Tanmay Srivastava – isn’t so lucky and goes unsold.

Craig Simmons up next, but he has no takers. Cameron Delport, Reeza Hendricks, Ganesh Sathish suffer the same fate.

02.01 pm

KS Bharat stays unsold.

Ricky Bhui, one of India’s Under-19 players, is sold to Hyderabad for his base price of 10 lakh.

Up next is Paul Valthaty, who hit a century for KXIP, but has done precious little since. No bids.

01.59 pm

Rilee Rossouw, Hanuma Vihari also go unsold.

But here’s a bid now, and it’s an unexpected one. Mumbai Indians bid 10 lakh for Apoorv Wankhade, and get him at that price.

01.57 pm

No bids for Adam Voges either, perhaps his base price of 1 crore was a deterrent. Travis Birt doesn’t find any takers either.

Here’s a surprise in the list. Debabrata Das is back with a base price of 20 lakh. But no paddles raised. Ben Dunk suffers the same fate, as do Davey Jacobs, Yogesh Takawale, KB Arun Karthik and Evin Lewis.

01.51 pm

The next player up is A Mukund, at a 30 lakh base price. Will Chennai go for him? They won’t, and neither is anyone else. Mukund remains unsold.

Ben Rohrer doesn’t have better luck either this time around. Remains unsold with a 50 lakh base price.

01.49 pm

And here’s another bid. Rajasthan Royals appear to want Chris Lynn, but so do Kolkata Knight Riders. Starts with a 50 lakh base price, but that’s progressed quickly.

Lynn finally goes to KKR, who could do with a hard-hitting top-order batsman, for 1.3 crore.

01.47 pm

Tim Paine and Luke Ronchi also remain unsold, as do Farhaan Behardien and Henry Davids. Only Ross Taylor and Naman Ojha have been sold so far amongst those players who came up again.

01.45 pm

Any takers for Cameron White at 1.5 crore? None, once again.

These are players who have been requested by franchises which is why they have come up again. Maybe some of the franchises were hoping for a reduction in budget by someone else? Else why nominate a player and not have a single bid for him?

01.44 pm

Martin Guptill at a 50 lakh base price would count as a good buy. Strangely enough, the franchises don’t think so. Guptill remains unsold.

Marlon Samuels has the highest base price possible of 2 crore. Some of the franchises have money left. But they’re not spending it on Samuels. Also unsold.

01.42 pm

S Badrinath is up now, at a base price of 1 crore. Too high? It would appear so. No bids. Unfortunate for Badrinath. Maybe CSK would have bid, but they have only 70 lakh.

Darren Bravo may not be the new Brian Lara, but he’s a talented batsman. No bids for him once again though. Unsold.

01.40 pm

Now Naman Ojha up and Hyderabad, who need an established Indian wicketkeeper, open the bidding at 50 lakh. No other bids, and the Sunrisers get their man.

01.39 pm

Taylor has a base price of 2 crore. Any bidders? Yes, Delhi open the bidding. So Taylor will be in IPL 2014 after all, and a good thing too.

The opening bid stays the closing bid and Taylor goes back to Delhi Daredevils.

Great to be going back to @DelhiDaredevils Looking forward to it. #DD

— Ross Taylor (@RossLTaylor) February 13, 2014

01.38 pm

Mahela was the only one unsold in the list of marquee players. Stays unsold now. Next up, Ross Taylor.

01.37 pm

We’re back after the brief break. The players franchises have asked for will be re-presented. They will come under the hammer in a pre-decided order. 41 players up.

And the first name up is Mahela Jayawardene, who went unsold at a 2 crore base price.

01.23 pm

Delhi have used their three Right to Match cards, the only franchise to have that many, very smartly indeed. They retained the services of Kevin Pietersen – who the franchise already knew would likely be available for the full season after the batsman kept them informed of the brewing situation with ECB – for 9 crore. They also held on to Kedar Jadhav and Shahbaz Nadeem, two of their brightest spots from a dismal IPL 2013. Manoj Narayan caught up with TA Sekar of Delhi earlier, and gleaned insights on the art of buying smart.

01.11 pm

Right, so every squad has the minimum number of 16 players required now, with both MI and KKR at that exact number. Somewhat surprisingly, Rajasthan have the largest squad with 21 players, but also have the most budget left with 6.25 crore in the kitty. RCB and CSK are down to 40 lakh and 70 lakh respectively, so they’ll not be winning any bidding wars that are still left.

DD have 3.3 crore, KXIP have 5.5 and KKR have 4.2. Will one of those three, or RR, get Ross Taylor? Its surely impossible that Taylor remains unsold in the auctions, or is it? We’ll find out soon enough. Meanwhile, here’s how the teams look right now:

Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Faf du Plessis, Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Smith, Ashish Nehra, Mohit Sharma, Samuel Badree, Ben Hilfenhaus, Matt Henry, B Aparjith, Mithun Manhas, Ishwar Pandey, Pawan Negi, Vijay Shankar, Ronit More. Budget left: 70 lakh. Squad Strength: 19. Overseas Players: 7.

Delhi Daredevils: M Vijay, Kevin Pietersen, Dinesh Karthik, JP Duminy, Manoj Tiwary, Quinton de Kock, Mohammed Shami, Rahul Sharma, Saurabh Tiwary, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Jaydev Unadkat, James Neesham, Kedar Jadhav, Mayank Agarwal, Rahul Shukla, Siddharth Kaul, Shahbaz Nadeem. Budget left: 3.3 crore. Squad Strength: 18. Overseas Players: 5.

Kings XI Punjab: David Miller, Manan Vohra, Virender Sehwag, Mitchell Johnson, George Bailey, Cheteshwar Pujara, Shaun Marsh, Wriddhaman Saha, Thisara Perera, Glenn Maxwell, L Balaji, Parvinder Awana, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Mandeep Singh, Rishi Dhawan, Anureet Singh, Sandeep Sharma, Akshar Patel, Beuran Hendricks. Budget left: 5.5 crore. Squad Strength: 19. Overseas Players: 7.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir, Sunil Narine, Jacques Kallis, Robin Uthappa, Yusuf Pathan, Shakib Al Hasan, Umesh Yadav, Vinay Kumar, Morne Morkel, Piyush Chawla, Manish Pandey, Suryakumar Yadav, Manvinder Bisla, Ryan ten Doeschate, Kuldeep Yadav, Veer Pratap Singh. Budget left: 4.2 crore. Squad Strength: 16. Overseas Players: 5.

Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Lasith Malinga, Kieron Pollard, Harbhajan Singh, Ambati Rayudu, Michael Hussey, Zaheer Khan, Pragyan Ojha, Corey Anderson, Josh Hazlewood, CM Gautam, Aditya Tare, Sushant Marathe, Jasprit Bumrah, Shreyas Gopal, Jalaj Saxena. Budget left: 1.05 crore. Squad Strength: 16. Overseas Players: 5.

Rajasthan Royals: Shane Watson, Ajinkya Rahane, James Faulkner, Stuart Binny, Sanju Samson, Brad Hodge, Steven Smith, Abhishek Nayar, Ben Cutting, Kane Richardson, Tim Southee, Unmukt Chand, Ankush Bains, Rajat Bhatia, Kevon Cooper, Iqbal Abdulla, Dhawal Kulkarni, Pravin Tambe, Karun Nair, Dishant Yagnik, Vikramjeet Malik. Budget left: 6.25 crore. Squad Strength: 21. Overseas Players: 8.

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers, Yuvraj Singh, Parthiv Patel, Albie Morkel, Mitchell Starc, Ashok Dinda, Ravi Rampaul, Muttiah Muralitharan, Nic Maddinson, Varun Aaron, Vijay Zol, Abu Nechim Ahmed, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shadab Jakati, Sandeep Warrier, Harshal Patel. Budget left: 40 lakh. Squad Strength: 18. Overseas Players: 7.

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Shikhar Dhawan, Dale Steyn, David Warner, Darren Sammy, Amit Mishra, Aaron Finch, Irfan Pathan, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Brendan Taylor, Moises Henriques, Venugopala Rao, Jason Holder, S Aniruddha, Manprit Juneja, KL Rahul, Parveez Rasool, Prashanth Parameshwaran, Karn Sharma, Amit Paunikar. Budget left: 1.9 crore. Squad Strength: 20. Overseas Players: 7.

01.05 pm

That was an interesting morning session. The first time uncapped players were in the auction, and most of whom did well in domestic cricket have found good prices, considerably over the previous artificial limits that had been set. Karn Sharma was the big gainer with 3.75 crore, but Rishi Dhawan (3 crore) and Kedar Jadhav (2 crore) did very well too.

Among others who hit the 1 crore mark were Ishwar Pandey (1.5 crore), Mayank Agarwal (1.6 crore), Gurkeerat Singh Mann (1.3 crore), Beuran Hendricks (1.8 crore), Manish Pandey (1.7 crore), Ryan ten Doeschate (1 crore), Jasprit Bumrah (1.2 crore), Rajat Bhatia (1.7 crore), Dhawal Kulkarni (1.1 crore) and KL Rahul (1 crore).

12.48 pm

Meanwhile, you can head over to our live chat with Dileep Premachandran, to discuss the likely hits and misses of these auctions. It’s live now here.

12.41 pm

We’ll now move to the accelerated auctions, with the first lot of ten sets of uncapped players done with. There will be a half-hour break. The franchises will give sets of 10 with wicketkeepers and batsmen together, bowlers, and allrounders.

They’ll need this break for discussions. Those tracking the auction need it to stretch legs and fingers, and whip out calculators. The auction will resume at 1:30 pm IST.

12.38 pm

No takers for the tweaking skills of Ankit Sharma, Rahil Shah, Saurashish Lahiri, Harmeet Singh, Prashant Padmanabhan, Udit Patel, Abrar Kazi, KP Appanna, J Syed Mohammad or Vishal Dabholkar.

“I don’t think anybody has any money,” quips Richard Madley.

12.34 pm

Rajasthan have been very active on Day 2. Their squad strength is up to 21. KKR have the smallest one with just 16 players, but all franchises have hit the 16-minimum mark.

12.33 pm

Vikramjeet Malik draws an opening bid of 20 lakh from Rajasthan, and with no other franchise interested, that’s where he goes.

12.32 pm

Bueran Hendricks did well in the Ram Slam Twenty20 challenge with Cape Cobras. The franchises have been watching, and he moves quickly past his 30 lakh base price, one of the rare overseas players to attract interest on Day 2.

Hendricks is well past 1.5 crore, but Delhi don’t sustain the bidding. And its KXIP who have him for 1.8 crore.

12.28 pm

Veer Pratap Singh is up next. KKR and Delhi both want him, but not enough to get into a bidding war. KKR it is, who have him at 40 lakh.

12.26 pm

Sandeep Warrier, the talented Karnataka seamer, goes to RCB for his base price of 10 lakh. He was with RCB last year too.

Harshal Patel has a bid from Rajasthan at his 30 lakh base price, but RCB use their only Right to Match card and retain Patel.

12.25 pm

S Aravind finds no buyers.

Chennai open the bidding at 10 lakh for Ronit More, and face no competition. Sold at 10 lakh to CSK.

Pawan Suyal, Ashish Reddy, have no takers.

12.22 pm

Shrikant Wagh, Sumit Narwal, Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan, Raiphi Gomez, Amitoze Singh, R Sathish, Biplab Samantray all go unsold.

12.18 pm

No bids for Bipul Sharma.

Jalaj Saxena has had good seasons with Madhya Pradesh and been part of India A squads. He was with Mumbai Indians last year, and they want him back, but have to battle Delhi Daredevils for him. Saxena goes for 90 lakh, up from his 20 lakh base price, with Mumbai winning the bidding war.

Handy allrounder is Saxena – can open the innings or bat lower down and his offspin bowling has come on quite nicely too.

12.13 pm

CSK make another buy, getting Vijay Shankar for 10 lakh, the only bid.

Akshar Patel finds favour with the franchises though, and goes to KXIP for 75 lakh, up from his 20 lakh base price.

12.09 pm

Dishant Yagnik goes for his base price of 30 lakh to Rajasthan Royals who make the only bid. Amit Paunikar also has only one bid, and goes for 20 lakh to Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Yagnik and Paunikar remain the only ones sold from this lot of wicketkeepers, with Nitin Saini also unsold.

12.08 pm

KS Bharat, Smit Patel, Mahesh Rawat, Uday Kaul, Shreevats Goswami remain unsold.

12.05 pm

Will G Hanuma Vihari attract bids? Again, surprisingly, he doesn’t. Did well for Hyderabad last season.

KB Arun Karthik, who took RCB to victory with a last-ball six in the 2011 Champions League T20, also has no takers.

No buyers for Ankit Bawne, either. But he’s young, and talented, and his time will surely come.

12.03 pm

Evin Lewis, Siddesh Lad remain unsold.

Sachin Baby, one of Kerala’s best limited-overs batsmen, also doesn’t attract bids. He was with Rajasthan last year. A bit surprising that no one bid for him.

No bids for Apoorv Wankhade, Rilee Rossouw, VA Jagadeesh either.

12.00 pm

Karun Nair is the first name up from the next lot of batsmen and he’s got Mumbai and Rajasthan both interested. Base price of 10 lakh only, but that’s been left far behind.

Nair had three consecutive centuries in the Ranji Trophy and was another vital cog in Karnataka’s Ranji triumph. If nothing else, it’s great to see consistent Ranji performers being sought by franchises. Nair goes to Rajasthan Royals for 75 lakh. Will RCB Right to Match him? No, they’ll conserve their budget.

11.54 am

And Karn Sharma is the highest priced uncapped player. He’ll partner Amit Mishra at Sunrisers Hyderabad once again, but for a hefty 3.75 crore package this time. Surely, no uncapped player will beat this price?

11.52 am

Karn Sharma has hit the 2 crore mark. Given how well he did for Hyderabad, it’s not surprising. He can bat a bit too. Will he breach the Rishi Dhawan mark of 3 crore? He does!

Sunrisers have the bid at 3.25 crore. Deliberations on at the KXIP table.

11.50 am

Karn has a 30 lakh base price. Chennai are interested in him, as are Delhi. SRH have used their Right to Match cards on Amit Mishra and Darren Sammy, so whoever bids highest for Karn will get him.

Kings XI in it now against Delhi. Sunrisers enter at 80 lakhs, and Karn’s price creeps past the 1 crore mark.

11.48 am

Chennai Super Kings make an opening, and as it turns out closing, bid for Pawan Negi at 10 lakh.

The last spinner in the set is Karn Sharma. The bidding should heat up nicely for him.

11.47 am

Ali Murtaza goes unsold at his 30 lakh base price.

Shreyas Gopal, fresh off a hat-trick that gave Karnataka the Irani Cup yesterday, has an opening bid from Mumbai at his 10 lakh base price. And he goes to Mumbai, under Anil Kumble’s tutelage, for 10 lakh.

11.45 am

Delhi Daredevils use their Right to Match card to retain Shahbaz Nadeem. © BCCI

Nadeem goes to Sunrisers for 85 lakh, but he won’t stay with them. Delhi’s final Right to Match card comes out and Nadeem will stay with them. At 85 lakhs, he’s as good a purchase as any.

11.44 am

It’s Shahbaz Nadeem up now, and Delhi will surely use their last Right to Match card on him?

Chennai open the bidding at 30 lakh, but Sunrisers also in it. Nadeem will make a good buy for any franchise, but it’s just possible CSK and SRH want to eat into the DD budget?

11.43 am

Pravin Tambe attracts an opening bid of 10 lakh from Chennai Super Kings. Will Rajasthan Royals use their Right to Match card? Yes, they will. Tambe stays with the franchise that gave him his big break for just 10 lakh. A steal, even at his age? Possibly.

11.42 am

RCB have bought Shadab Jakati for his base price of 20 lakh. That brings them up to 16 players.

11.41 am

Yuzvendra Singh Chahal was in the Mumbai Indians mix last year. RCB open the bidding at 10 lakh for him, and get him at that price. They have 15 players and 1.1 crore left. A couple of low-budget, good-value buys mean they have some cash left and could get a few more players.

Sarabjit Ladda, the legspinner, goes unsold however. Bhargav Bhatt, the Baroda and KXIP spinner, also has not takers.

11.38 am

Kuldeep Yadav has had good success at the Under-19 level and he’s with the India U-19 team in the UAE for the World Cup. He’s wanted by franchises in Bangalore at the ITC Gardenia though, with Mumbai and Chennai vying for his services. KKR also in it, and it’s the Knight Riders who will get Yadav for 40 lakh.

11.36 am

Ishwar Pandey is sold for 1.5 crore to Chennai Super Kings, who were quite keen to get him and fought off the increasing bids. That makes it 16 players for CSK too.

11.34 am

Ishwar Pandey, who debuted in the IPL for Pune when Gayle monstered his way to 175 in Bangalore, finds bidders in Mumbai and Chennai. He had a base price of just 10 lakh, but he’s among the up-and-coming Indian pacers. Highest wicket-taker in the previous Ranji season and part of the Indian squads in various formats, he also did well for India A in South Africa, which could be a factor, in case the tournament has to be moved.

Chennai have to battle against Hyderabad now and the bidding crosses 1 crore.

11.32 am

It’s Siddharth Kaul now, and RCB again make the opening bid. But Delhi want their old bowler back and it takes only a couple of bids to ensure RCB are out, given their budget constraints. And Kaul goes to Delhi for 45 lakh.

11.30 am

Abu Nechim Ahmed might be a good addition for franchises. RCB make an opening bid of 30 lakh. That’s all they can really afford, I think, and with no more bids, they get Ahmed for his base price.

11.29 am

Harmeet Singh Bansal has no takers at 20 lakh. Prashanth Parameswaran, who once conceded 37 runs to Chris Gayle, has one bid at his 30 lakh base price, and goes to Sunrisers Hyderabad. Will they bowl him against RCB? They won’t, and RCB decline to use their Right to Match card too.

11.27 am

Sandeep Sharma under the hammer now. Delhi are interested, but so are Punjab, his old franchise. His base price is 30 lakh, but the franchises obviously think he’s worth a lot more. And KXIP get Sandeep for 85 lakh.

11.24 am

Anureet Singh, who took lots of wickets for Railways in the Ranji Trophy, has a 20 lakh base price. KXIP make an opening bid, and it remains the closing bid. Sold to Punjab for 20 lakh.

Next up is Jasprit Bumrah, one of Mumbai’s surprise inclusions in the previous IPL season. They make the opening bid, but Delhi are also interested. Rajasthan jump in when the price goes past 1 crore, but Mumbai bag Bumrah for 1.2 crore.

Squads update: Delhi have KXIP have 16 players. Rajasthan and Sunrisers have 17 players each. So these four franchises have the minimum quota covered.

11.20 am

Rahul Shukla, who bowled with pace for Rajasthan, has an opening bid from Delhi. RCB are also interested in Shukla. He bowled a heavy ball for Rajasthan, but they aren’t bidding for him. And he goes to Delhi for 40 lakh. No Right to Match from Rajasthan either.

11.19 am

Dhawal Kulkarni is drawing considerable interest from Delhi and Rajasthan. His base price was 30 lakh, but he’s quickly crossed the 1 crore mark. He did well for Mumbai Indians, but found it difficult to break into the playing XI of a star-studded team. He’ll be with Rajasthan this year for 1.1 crore.

11.17 am

Latest squads:

Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Faf du Plessis, Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Smith, Ashish Nehra, Mohit Sharma, Samuel Badree, Ben Hilfenhaus, Matt Henry, B Aparjith, Mithun Manhas. Budget left: 2.5 crore. Squad Strength: 15. Overseas Players: 7.

Delhi Daredevils: M Vijay, Kevin Pietersen, Dinesh Karthik, JP Duminy, Manoj Tiwary, Quinton de Kock, Mohammad Shami, Rahul Sharma, Saurabh Tiwary, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Jaydev Unadkat, James Neesham, Kedar Jadhav, Mayank Agarwal. Budget left: 5 crore. Squad Strength: 15. Overseas Players: 5.

Kings XI Punjab: David Miller, Manan Vohra, Virender Sehwag, Mitchell Johnson, George Bailey, Cheteshwar Pujara, Shaun Marsh, Wriddhaman Saha, Thisara Perera, Glenn Maxwell, L Balaji, Parvinder Awana, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Mandeep Singh, Rishi Dhawan. Budget left: 9.1 crore. Squad Strength: 15. Overseas Players: 6.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir, Sunil Narine, Jacques Kallis, Robin Uthappa, Yusuf Pathan, Shakib Al Hasan, Umesh Yadav, Vinay Kumar, Morne Morkel, Piyush Chawla, Manish Pandey, Suryakumar Yadav, Manvinder Bisla, Ryan ten Doeschate. Budget left: 5 crore. Squad Strength: 14. Overseas Players: 5.

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Shikhar Dhawan, Dale Steyn, David Warner, Darren Sammy, Amit Mishra, Aaron Finch, Irfan Pathan, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Brendan Taylor, Moises Henriques, Venugopal Rao, Jason Holder, S Aniruddha, Manprit Juneja, KL Rahul, Parveez Rasool. Budget left: 6.15 crore. Squad Strength: 17. Overseas Players: 7.

11.08 am

Kevin O’Brien hasn’t found luck at previous IPL auctions. What’s it going to be this time? He’s an exciting player, but no bids this around too. Unsold at a 30 lakh base price.

Iqbal Abdulla, who was with KKR, is up next. Delhi make the opening bid for the spinner, but Rajasthan and Chennai then take over. Abdulla had some good figures for Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy, and the franchises appear to have been watching. Abdulla goes to Rajasthan for 65 lakh.

11.05 am

Mithun Manhas, the Delhi batsman, finds no bids at a 30 lakh base price at the start, but Chennai make a late entry with Stephen Fleming raising his paddle. And Chennai get Manhas for his base price.

11.04 am

Ryan ten Doeschate has set himself a 1 crore base price. He finds a bidder with Kolkata Knight Riders, his old franchise. And that’s the only bid for Doeschate, who’ll stay with KKR for 1 crore.

11.03 am

Kevon Cooper, who did well with Rajasthan in intermittent appearances, is up next. He’s the first overseas player sold on Day 2, with Rajasthan making the only bid. They get him for 30 lakhs – one of the steals of this year’s auction, I’d say.

11.02 am

Rasool’s being bid for by Hyderabad and Delhi. Will he hit the 1 crore mark? He almost makes it. Hyderabad get Rasool for 95 lakhs.

11.00 am

Rishi Dhawan’s at 3 crore now. The bid’s with KXIP. He wasn’t picked by the selectors for the Irani Trophy, which – in my opinion – was among the more stark misses. And he goes to KXIP for 3 crore. I think it’s unlikely any uncapped Indian player will top that. But it’s Parveez Rasool next.

10.58 am

Rishi Dhawan, the highest wicket-taker of the Ranji Trophy season with 49 scalps, under the hammer now. Mumbai had him last year, and they make a brief bid for him this year too. But the bid is between Delhi and Hyderabad. He’ll be an extremely valuable player to have, I’d think. Young, can work up a decent pace in the 130s, is more than handy with the bat and in the field.

Dhawan’s breached the 1 crore mark, and two new teams in the fray. It’s Rajasthan and Punjab, both of whom have been good with value buys. Dhawan’s joined Jadhav at the 2 crore mark, and crossed it after deliberations by both franchises.

10.54 am

Ashok Menaria was thought of highly by Shane Warne when he was with the Rajasthan Royals. But he attracts no bids today. Unsold with a 30 lakh base price.

Mandeep Singh is in demand though. Chennai and Hyderabad are in the fray, with KXIP standing by with a Right to Match card. The bidding stops at 80 lakh with Sunrisers, but Punjab exercise their card and get him back.

10.50 am

Deliberations at the KKR table. Venky Mysore in conversation with Juhi Chawla. At the Royals table, Rahul Dravid is huddled with his team. The franchises look serious, but the Bhatia household will no doubt be sporting smiles. He’s been a tireless workhorse for the Delhi team in domestic cricket. And he’s sold to Rajasthan for 1.7 crore. Well deserved, in my opinion.

10.48 am

Yogesh Nagar, ex-Delhi Daredevils allrounder, has no bids at his 20 lakh base price. Rajat Bhatia up next, and he will surely attract decent interest. KKR bid for their old player at his 30 lakh base price, but Delhi, the team Bhatia played for earlier, also want him.

Bhatia’s price is rocketing and it touches 1 crore. It’s between KKR and DD. Who will bag him? The Royals want him too now, and there’s no signs of letting up. Will Bhatia touch Jadhav’s 2 crore mark?

10.45 am

Mumbai add Sushant Marathe at his base price of 10 lakh, and that concludes the wicketkeepers section.

10.44 am

The deep Ambani pockets win the day. Tare is going to reach for the stars with his old franchise at 1.6 crore.

10.42 am

Niall O’Brien goes unsold at a 30 lakh base price. Yogesh Takawale, the Tripura wicketkeeper, also unsold at a 10 lakh base price. Aditya Tare, with a 20 lakh base price, attracts more interest though. Mumbai and Rajasthan in the bidding, and Tare’s price rises steadily.

Rahul Dravid, poker face on and paddle in hand, seems to value Tare highly. But so does Anil Kumble, at the Mumbai table, and Tare’s stock rises past 1 crore.

10.38 am

Ankush Bains, who is with the India Under-19 side in Dubai, finds a team in Rajasthan Royals, who buy him at the 10 lakh base price.

10.38 am

The first overseas player of Day 2 is Ben Dunk, the Player of the Tournament in Big Bash League 2014. No takers for a 20 lakh base price. Davey Jacobs, the former Mumbai Indians man, also doesn’t find a bidder, even with a 10 lakh base price. The franchises are quite focused on who they want among the Day 2 picks.

10.36 am

CM Gautam, the Karnataka wicketkeeper, fresh off an Irani Cup century, played for Delhi last season. A late bid by Mumbai at 20 lakhs ensures he’ll be in the mix this year too, for a fresh franchise.

10.35 am

Debabrata Das, another former KKR player, has a 20 lakh base price. No bids. Das remains unsold.

10.34 am

Manvinder Bisla, the Man of the Match in the 2012 final, is up next among the wicketkeeper-batsmen. Kolkata Knight Riders want their old player back, but they’ll have to battle Mumbai Indians for him. And they get him for 60 lakh. Bisla will remain a Knight Rider.

10.29 am

The final batsman of the first lot is Mayank Agarwal, who’s played some good hands for RCB in the past and Karnataka this season. The base price is 10 lakh, but it’s quickly zooming past that figure. Delhi and Mumbai are vying for Agarwal, and then Hyderabad enter the fray. He’s sold to Delhi for 1.6 crore. RCB can’t use their Right to Match card even if they wanted to, because they have only 1.5 crore left!

10.26 am

Suryakumar Yadav goes up now. Chennai enter at the 20 lakh base price, and Mumbai, his old franchise, are also in it. Chennai drop out, which is the cue for KKR to enter. Where will Yadav go? He’s with KKR for 70 lakh.

10.23 am

KL Rahul, another extremely talented young batsman, is up next. He starts with a base price of 10 lakh, but how will he go? RCB have a Right to Match card up their sleeve, but it’s a sleeve that’s short on budget.

And Rahul goes to Hyderabad for 1 crore. After much deliberation, RCB decide not to use their card.

10.20 am

Kedar Jadhav, with a 30 lakh base price, goes under the hammer now. RCB are interested, as are MI, with DD sitting by with a Right to Match card. KXIP enter the fray, and MI seem fairly keen on him, as do KXIP. KKR enter after MI drop out and Jadhav, who’s had a great Ranji season, becomes the third uncapped player to breach the 1 crore mark. Not unexpected at all for a player of his ability. He can keep wickets too if required.

It’s between KKR and KXIP now. Preity Zinta’s been steadfastly raising her paddle, but she’s out. And a new bidder is here in the form of SRH. It appears Jadhav is going to be the most expensive uncapped Indian player of the auction. And SRH bag him for 2 crore. Do Delhi exercise their Right to Match? They do, as expected. Jadhav for 2 crore to Delhi.

10.16 am

Manprit Juneja, who played for Delhi last year, has a base price of just 10 lakh. He’s tapered off this season after a good outing last year, and Hyderabad bag him for his base price. No Right to Match from Delhi again.

10.15 am

Manish Pandey is up next at 20 lakh. As expected, there’s franchises interested in him too. A batsman of great talent, and an outstanding fielder to boot. Chennai seem particularly keen on him, as do Delhi. Mumbai showed initial interest but dropped out. And Pandey breaks the 1 crore barrier, and shows no signs of slowing up. KKR enter when it goes past 1.5 crore. And sold to KKR for 1.7 crore.

10.13 am

Unmukt Chand, with a base price of 30 lakh also attracts interest. Mumbai and Rajasthan go at it, and Unmukt will play under Rahul Dravid at the Rajasthan Royals for 65 lakh. Will Delhi get him with a Right to Match card? No, they won’t. They’re probably saving them for Kedar Jadhav and Shahbaz Nadeem.

10.10 am

And KXIP bag Gurkeerat for 1.3 crore. He stays with his old franchise, but will be considerably richer.

10.10 am

Gurkeerat Singh Mann, who took one of the best catches of the 2013 season, is bid for by both Mumbai and Kings XI, his old franchise. Mumbai drop out soon, but Rajasthan enter at 50 lakh. Gurkeerat has the highest price among the uncapped players so far, and he breaches the crore mark. Both KXIP and RR seem to really value him. And suddenly, so do KKR, who enter at 1.2 crore.

10.06 am

The hugely talented B Aparajith is the first player with a base price of 10 lakh. Chennai open the bidding, and it stays with them. Aparajith goes to CSK, his old franchise, for 10 lakh.

10.06 am

Vijay Zol, who will lead India’s Under-19 World Cup campaign, is up next. He almost goes unsold, but RCB raise their paddle at the last moment. And they get him at the base price of 30 lakh. Down to 1.5 crore in the budget now.

10.05 am

T Suman now at a 30 lakh base price. But no takers, and Suman goes unsold.

10.04 am

The legendary Gundappa Viswanath picks out S Aniruddha as the first name to go under the hammer on Day 2 at base price of 20 lakh. And he’s sold to Sunrisers Hyderabad, where he’ll be under the tutelage of dad Kris Srikkanth.

10.02 am

The first ten sets will be dealt with first for the uncapped players and the auction will then move to the accelerated process, says Sundar Raman. And Richard Madley has the hammer.

10.00 am

Right we’re all set now, with the auction about to start soon. Here’s how the teams are looking like right now. Delhi, Punjab, Kolkata, Rajasthan and Hyderabad have decent money left. Rajasthan’s overall figure of 12.1 crore may not mean much though, since they generally don’t like to go all in.

Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Faf du Plessis, Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Smith, Ashish Nehra, Mohit Sharma, Samuel Badree, Ben Hilfenhaus, Matt Henry. Budget left: 2.9 crore. Squad Strength: 13. Overseas Players: 7.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir, Sunil Narine, Jacques Kallis, Robin Uthappa, Yusuf Pathan, Shakib Al Hasan, Umesh Yadav, Vinay Kumar, Morne Morkel, Piyush Chawla. Budget left: 9 crore. Squad Strength: 10. Overseas Players: 4.

Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Lasith Malinga, Kieron Pollard, Harbhajan Singh, Ambati Rayudu, Michael Hussey, Zaheer Khan, Pragyan Ojha, Corey Anderson, Josh Hazlewood. Budget left: 5.15 crore. Squad Strength: 10. Overseas Players: 5.

09.59 am

Follow live updates of Day 2 of the IPL 2014 Auctions here.

09.58 am

Stephen Fleming says Chennai have bought all “match-winners” in their squad and is happy with yesterday’s purchases. “Faf is a wonderful player, but Michael Hussey is the trade-off. Disappointing to lose him,” says Fleming, while revealing that CSK’s lone Right to Match card came down pretty much to who came up first for auction between du Plessis and Hussey.

Fleming’s also surprised – as is pretty much everyone else – that Ross Taylor wasn’t picked yesterday. Taylor could still be back today though. Let’s see if he does and who bags him. They could get him at the base price, which at 2 crore, would still not be a bad buy.

09.53 am

Manoj Narayan was on the scene yesterday and spoke to T A Sekar of Delhi Daredevils, who revealed that the franchise already knew of Kevin Pietersen’s developing situation with the England and Wales Cricket Board, and decided to use their Right to Match card – which they did smartly by bagging KP for 9 crore, less than what they would have lost from their auction budget had they retained him.

09.48 am

The uncapped players will present franchises with a novel challenge, since none of them have been in an auction before.

Here’s what the franchises have as spending money, and the number of players they need at the least to form a 16-man squad:

Chennai Super Kings – 2.9 crore, at least 3 players needed (13 in squad)

Delhi Daredevils – 8.6 crore, at least 3 players needed (13 in squad)

Kings XI Punjab – 14.2 crore, at least 4 players needed (12 in squad)

Kolkata Knight Riders – 9 crore, at least 6 players needed (10 in squad)

Mumbai Indians – 5.15 crore, at least 5 players needed (11 in squad)

Rajasthan Royals – 12.1 crore, at least 5 players needed (11 in squad)

Royal Challengers Bangalore – 1.8 crore, at least 4 players needed (12 in squad)

Sunrisers Hyderabad – 8.4 crore, at least 3 players needed (13 in squad)

09.43 am

Hello and welcome to the second day of the IPL 2014 auctions. We’ve had an action-packed first day, with plenty of money spent but no franchise reaching the minimum of 16 players needed in the squad. The last hour on Wednesday (February 12) was almost somnolent, with franchises clearly interested in preserving their remaining budget for the uncapped players.

There are several exciting Indian players who should be on the radar of most sides, such as Kedar Jadhav, who had a magnificent season for Maharashtra and has been a limited-overs stalwart. Manish Pandey hit the first century by an Indian in the IPL way back in 2009. He’s gone through ups and downs since, and made important runs for Karnataka during their Ranji title run.

There’s also Rishi Dhawan, Unmukt Chand, Mandeep Singh and Shahbaz Nadeem, alongwith B Aparajith, Jalaj Saxena, Vijay Zol, KL Rahul, Gurkeerat Singh Mann and the likes.

The budgets left with some franchises might be a tad less than what the uncapped players would have hoped for when it was first announced that they would be part of the auctions this year, but there’s still enough money left for some of them at least to get good deals.

04.56 pm

Before signing off, here’s a recap of the major events of the day:

Yuvraj Singh fetched a whopping 14 crore, while Dinesh Karthik went for a similarly jaw-dropping 12.5 crore. Kevin Pietersen was expected to be the highest-grossing overseas player and the franchises didn’t disappoint, with Pietersen going for 9 crore. Mitchell Johnson took home 6.5 crore and Glenn Maxwell rounded out the top five with a 6 crore pay packet.

What times the gangnam? @imVkohli @henrygayle @ABdeVilliers17

— yuvraj singh (@YUVSTRONG12) February 12, 2014

The major surprises among players going unsold were Ross Taylor and Praveen Kumar, but they could be picked tomorrow. Some franchises might fancy themselves as better placed than others, some might rue retentions that ate into their budgets, and some might wonder at bidding for a player they could have got for a lesser price by simply using their Right to Match cards.

But then what’s an auction without its share of ‘how did that happen’ moments? And as the saying goes, well begun is only half done. It’s on to tomorrow then.

04.49 pm

Here’s how the teams look like heading into Day 2. The big guns have been fired, but it’s the whole team that matters, like Rajasthan and Hyderabad showed so well last season.

Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Faf du Plessis, Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Smith, Ashish Nehra, Mohit Sharma, Samuel Badree, Ben Hilfenhaus, Matt Henry. Budget left: 2.9 crore. Squad Strength: 13. Overseas Players: 7.

Rajasthan Royals: Shane Watson, Ajinkya Rahane, James Faulkner, Stuart Binny, Sanju Samson, Brad Hodge, Steve Smith, Abhishek Nayar, Ben Cutting, Kane Richardson, Tim Southee. Budget left: 12.1 crore. Squad Strength: 11. Overseas Players: 7.

04.46 pm

Day 1 of the IPL 2014 auctions is over. A list of the unsold players from today will be sent to all franchises, so that if they want to reconsider some of them, they can do so tomorrow after the uncapped players have been dealt with.

The auction will start at 10 am on Thursday (February 13). Wednesday ended with franchises sleepwalking through the last hour, clearly holding on to their dwindling budgets for the uncapped Indians, some of whom are likely to find good demand.

It’ll be interesting to see how Kedar Jadhav, Mandeep Singh, Unmukt Chand, Shahbaz Nadeem, Rishi Dhawan and the like go tomorrow, where we’ll bring you live updates once again.

04.43 pm

We’re back to normal form now. Tino Best, Jade Dernbach, Sheldon Cottrell, Jerome Taylor, Kyle Mills, Juan Theron, Nuwan Kulasekara, Simon Jones all go unsold.

The final set of today’s auctions has more fast bowlers, but that just means there’ s more pacers to go unsold. No bids for Shaminda Eranga, Hamish Bennett, Ian Butler, Rory Kleinveldt, Nuwan Pradeep, Suranga Lakmal, Aavishkar Salvi, Isuru Udana.

That’s that for today’s auctions.

04.36 pm

No bids for Dilruwan Perera, Mohammad Mahmudullah, Grant Elliot, Rayad Emrit, Elton Chigumbura, Garey Mathurin, Angelo Perera, Danza Hyatt or Rikki Clarke.

Rinse, repeat for the next lot of Lonwabo Tsotsobe, VRV Singh, Krismar Santokie, Sudeep Tyagi, Kemar Roach, Marchant de Lange, Mitchell McClenaghan, Ben Laughlin.

And here’s something against the grain. Chennai buy Matt Henry, the New Zealand pacer who took a four-wicket haul on his ODI debut, for 30 lakh.

04.28 pm

So we’re back, and Madley says there are two more sets to go. I’m betting this is going to be very quick, with no bids. There are lots of uncapped Indians tomorrow, who will be worth waiting for.

04.19 pm

The next lot is unlikely to attract any interest, though they’ve all been fine batsmen.

Expectedly, no bids for Mohammad Kaif, Chamara Kapugedera, Adrian Barath, Rob Quiney, Hemang Badani, Jehan Mubarak, Justin Ontong, Wasim Jaffer, Dilshan Munaweera or Callum Ferguson.

04.13 pm

Doug Bollinger attracts no bids, so that one shot of Suresh Raina almost destroying his new hairdo is the only one we’ll have. The talented, but injury prone Pat Cummins also has no takers at a 1 crore base price, and neither does Jackson Bird for 50 lakh.

Pankaj Singh, who had a good domestic season for Rajasthan and took a six-wicket haul for Rest of India in the Irani Cup that concluded today, also finds no takers. Hard on Pankaj possibly, but that’s the way it goes. Ryan McLaren’s base price of 1 crore could have possibly been a deterrent and he goes unsold too, as does Dirk Nannes, who once kept Glenn McGrath out of the Delhi side for the entire 2009 season.

I’d have thought Abhimanyu Mithun would break the unsold sequence, but no takers for him too. Wonder why. Adam Milne, Shaun Tait and Wayne Parnell suffer the same fate.

04.08 pm

Not much enthusiasm for the next lot of players classified as allrounders either.

Samit Patel, Vernon Philander, Jacob Oram, Christopher Barnwell, Farveez Maharoof, Dimitri Mascarenhas, David Wiese, Jeevan Mendis find no takers.

Some fast bowlers up next, which a few franchises might be interested in.

04.05 pm

Right, the process is going to be speeded up now.

Richard Levi, Colin Munro, Lahiru Thirimanne, Phil Hughes, Vaughn Van Jaarsveld, Dean Elgar, Travis Birt, Kieran Powell, Luke Pomersbach and Neil Broom all go unsold.

It strikes me that they could take a break and if franchises aren’t interested, maybe there won’t be any need to continue with today’s lot. But we’re moving on.

03.58 pm

Right to Match cards left:

RCB have 1 (but a budget that won’t allow them to use it most likely), KXIP have 1, Delhi have 2 and Rajasthan have 1. Otherwise, the teams look like this now:

Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Faf du Plessis, Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Smith, Ashish Nehra, Mohit Sharma, Samuel Badree, Ben Hilfenhaus. Budget left: 3.2 crore. Squad Strength: 12. Overseas Players: 6.

Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Lasith Malinga, Kieron Pollard, Harbhajan Singh, Ambati Rayudu, Michael Hussey, Zaheer Khan, Pragyan Ojha, Corey Anderson. Josh Hazlewood. Budget left: 5.15 crore. Squad Strength: 10. Overseas Players: 5.

03.53 pm

Specialist spinners haven’t really started bidding wars in this auction. And there aren’t takers for anyone among Devendra Bishoo, Ashley Nurse, Fawad Ahmed, Nikita Miller, Nicky Boje, James Muirhead, Sohag Gazi.

Madley says he can see that all franchises are saving up for the uncapped players tomorrow. I think he’s right. But the ones who have bid smartly today will have a much better chance of making really solid squads with the uncapped players – many of whom will be worthwhile buys at bargain prices.

Meanwhile, Neesham’s pretty happy to join Delhi Daredevils.

That was a pretty stressful experience, but couldn't be happier to be joining @DelhiDaredevils this season! Can't wait!

— Jimmy Neesham (@JimmyNeesh) February 12, 2014

03.47 pm

No bids for Fidel Edwards, but Ben Cutting is bought by Rajasthan Royals for 80 lakh. Manpreet Gony goes unsold.

Kane Richardson, on whom Pune splurged a fair bit in 2012, finds buyers this time too. It’s Rajasthan again, and they get him at this base price of 1 crore. Chennai enter the auction to buy Ben Hilfhenhaus, who was with them earlier, for his base price of 1 crore.

No takers for Joginder Sharma, however, and the man who bowled the final over of the inaugural World Twenty20 in 2007 goes unsold. Clint McKay suffers the same fate.

CSK seem to want most of their past players and bid against Hyderabad for Jason Holder. Hyderabad win this one, with a 75 lakh bid. Chennai are also unsuccessful in bidding for Tim Southee, with Rajasthan bagging him for 1.2 crore.

Mumbai buy Josh Hazlewood for his base price of 50 lakh.

03.36 pm

The allrounders have generally found greater favour with franchises than the one-skill men.

Johan Botha and James Franklin find no buyers however. But James Neesham, who showed his prowess with bat and ball during the Champions League Twenty20 last year with Otago Volts, has got the almost somnolent room active again. Neesham – base price of 30 lakh – is sold for 1 crore to Delhi Daredevils. They do seem to like their pacers stables.

Sachithra Senanayake, whom Kolkata bid big bucks for in 2012, goes unsold however. Andrew McDonald, John Hastings, Roelof van der Merwe share the same fate as does Jesse Ryder, which is a bit of a surprise.

03.31 pm

We’re on to the next lot, with batsmen up now. The franchises aren’t interested. Neil McKenzie, Chris Lynn, Herschelle Gibbs, Ben Rohrer, Farhaan Behardien, Henry Davids, Adam Voges, Upul Tharanga, Hamish Rutherford all go unsold. The two Indians at the tail-end of the lot, Venugopala Rao and A Mukund prevent it from being completely unsold.

RCB attempt to buy Venugopala, but can’t go too high. Hyderabad get the local boy for 55 lakhs, with Delhi declining to match the price with their card after some consultation. Mukund, however, remains unsold.

03.22 pm

There’s another lot of spin bowlers coming up. No bids for Suleiman Benn or Rangana Herath, but Samuel Badree, an under-rated but effective Twenty20 bowler attracts an opening bid from Chennai Super Kings and goes to them for 30 lakh.

Neither of Imran Tahir, Nathan Lyon, Suraj Randiv or Ramesh Powar. Brad Hogg, part of Australia’s World Twenty20 squad, comes in at a high base price of 1.5 crore, and no franchise is interested in buying him either. Akila Dananjaya also goes unsold – it’s not been a very happy auction for Sri Lankan players.

03.12 pm

Here’s how the squads look right now. RCB have only 1.8 crore left. RR have 15.1 crore, but they’ve never been ones to spend the entire salary cap in any case. Delhi have 9.6 crore and Hyderabad have 9.7 – so expect those two to fight hardest for any big names remaining.

Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Faf du Plessis, Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Smith, Ashish Nehra, Mohit Sharma. Budget left: 4.5 crore. Squad Strength: 10. Overseas Players: 4.

Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Lasith Malinga, Kieron Pollard, Harbhajan Singh, Ambati Rayudu, Michael Hussey, Zaheer Khan, Pragyan Ojha, Corey Anderson. Budget left: 5.65 crore. Squad Strength: 9. Overseas Players: 4.

Rajasthan Royals: Shane Watson, Ajinkya Rahane, James Faulkner, Stuart Binny, Sanju Samson, Brad Hodge, Steven Smith, Abhishek Nayar. Budget left: 15.1 crore. Squad Strength: 8. Overseas Players: 4.

—

Rahul Dravid on auction action: Steven Smith is very important for us from the perspective that our other two key batsmen, that is Shane Watson and Brad Hodge … Hodge is 39, Watson’s had a few injury issues. We wanted to back it up with a class player who can play spin really well, who has proven leadership potential.

We have our players. We retained (Shane) Watson, (James) Faulkner, Sanju (Samson), (Ajinkya) Rahane, (Stuart) Binny – they are our marquee players. Obviously when you retain five players, it reduces the budget that you’re working with. Incidentally, some of the prices these (marquee) players went for, it was not possible for us to go for them.

There are a lot of uncapped players in this list. It’s not really a great secret that our strategy is to go for players under the radar who we think we can get the best out of, who fit into our environment and fits into our culture. That’s not going to really change too much.

Rahul Dravid on IPL’s credibility crisis: A lot of work has to be done behind the scenes and on it as well. Obviously, there were a lot of controversies, it is a big tournament, and there are going to be controversies as well. And it’s a challenge for everyone involved, but I believe there a lot of good people in the system and there’s a lot of good that comes out of the IPL as well.

03.07 pm

Brendan Taylor happy to be part of the Sunrisers family.

Wow! Thanks everyone! I’m feeling extremely honoured to be apart of the @SunRisers family. Amazing feeling!

— Brendan Taylor (@BrendanTaylor86) February 12, 2014

02.57 pm

Mohit Sharma up now, and Delhi are going for him too. But Chennai, for whom Mohit did so well last season, are determined to get Mohit and they get him for 2 crore.

Munaf Patel has a base price of 50 lakh, but attracts no bids even at that low base price. That does it for the current lot of fast bowlers.

02.56 pm

Parvinder Awana finds favour with Chennai for 65 lakh, but Punjab exercise their right to match the bid and Awana stays in Preity Zinta’s team.

Jaydev Unadkat has a base price of 1 crore, and Delhi make the opening bid. Rajasthan are also interested in Unadkat. He took a five-wicket haul in the last IPL and has done well in intermittent appearances for India since then too. Delhi buy him for 2.8 crore. RCB have a Right to Match card, but they don’t have the funds to match that bid.

02.51 pm

Varun Aaron, on the comeback trail from injury, attracts a fair few bids. The Sunrisers and – incredibly enough RCB – both in the fray even though the price hits 2 crore. RCB buy him for 2 crore, and Delhi – once again – don’t exercise their Right to Match card. RCB have only 1.8 crore left.

How on earth will Mallya make the minimum squad of 16? I’ve no idea, but more importantly, does he?

02.48 pm

Ashish Nehra has set himself a base price of 2 crore. Not too many takers initially, until Chennai make an opening bid, and – as it turns out – the closing bid too. Delhi decline the opportunity to match the price and Nehra has a new IPL team.

02.46 pm

L Balaji, the man with the wide smile and big heart, is up next. Bidding across several franchises for the Tamil Nadu pacer. It’s Vijay Mallya against Preity Zinta for the moment, though Gary Kirsten at the Delhi table seems interested too. I don’t see how Mallya can afford to go so high – does he remember he’s getting close to exhausting his budget?

In any event, Balaji goes to KXIP for 1.8 crore.

02.42 pm

There’s another lot of fast bowlers up now. RP Singh, the leading wicket-taker of IPL 2009, finds no takers this time. He could be back tomorrow of course.

Brett Lee has a base price of 2 crore. Is that too high for a man who’s already retired? It appears so. No bids.

Nathan Coulter-Nile, on the other hand, has a 1 crore base price and age on his side. Rajasthan and Delhi are both interested in Coulter-Nile. The hammer comes down with Delhi having bid 2.2 crore, but Rahul Dravid appeared to have been holding up his paddle for a bid too, which Madley didn’t see.

The bidding continues, with Madley happy to take Dravid’s word. Madley’s trust in Dravid provides a heart-warming moment in the mostly cold business of setting prices, and also makes Coulter-Nile a rich man. Delhi eventually get him for 4.25 crore.

02.36 pm

Moises Henriques, who is with the Australian Test squad in South Africa right now, goes to Sunrisers Hyderabad for his base price of 1 crore. Royal Challengers Bangalore could have, in theory, exercised their Right to Match card, but I don’t think they can afford to splurge on overseas players now or on those who have a larger than 50 lakhs cap.

02.34 pm

Abhishek Nayar has been a domestic giant, but not made as much of a hit in IPL. However, Rajasthan Royals continue to defy conventional wisdom, shelling out 1 crore for the Mumbai allrounder.

No bids for Daniel Christian, Ravi Bopara or Luke Wright.

02.30 pm

And here’s Corey Anderson, the owner of the world’s fastest ODI hundred, and possibly the man who franchises were waiting for, to splurge big one final time.

Mumbai Indians are in, as are Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Daredevils. The bids are flying thick and fast from his base price of 1 crore. Sunrisers Hyderabad enter and the bidding crosses 4 crore, but Mumbai land the prize catch with a 4.5 crore bid. Will Corey Anderson get enough games in the Mumbai line-up that’s already stacked with big names?

02.26 pm

Kolkata Knight Riders are quite keen on Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Bengal’s old hand. But Delhi Daredevils win this round, getting Shukla for 1.5 crore.

02.24 pm

It’s the allrounders now and this should perk things up a bit. Or will it?

No bids for Andre Russell, but Glenn Maxwell, the million-dollar man of 2012, is in demand this time around too. The first name to attract consistent bidding after lunch. Delhi are in the race, as are Mumbai. Neither team is letting up, with extensive consultations between bids. Delhi drop out, but Punjab enter at 5 crore. And they finally get the player they want at 6 crore, roughly the same million-dollar price Maxwell got last time around.

He’s highly rated by the franchises for sure.

02.17 pm

It’s another lot of wicketkeepers now. None of Tim Paine, Kaushal Silva, Andre Fletcher, Dane Vilas, Denesh Ramdin or Prasanna Jayawardene find any buyers.

Brendan Taylor however, finds favour with Hyderabad, who get him for his 30 lakh base price. No bids for Johnson Charles, Luke Ronchi.

Surprisingly few bids for keepers.

02.10 pm

S Badrinath is the second capped Indian to attract no bids. Surprisingly, even CSK stay out of this one. Badrinath remains unsold.

Not so surprising is Ian Bell going unsold. The English batsmen haven’t been very popular with IPL franchises, and Bell isn’t a T20 dasher either. Tamim Iqbal also remains unsold, as does Martin Guptill. It’s been a slow start post lunch.

Lendl Simmons also goes into the pool of unsold players.

02.07 pm

Marlon Samuels’s match-winning knock in the World Twenty20 final of 2012 appears to be too far back for most franchises to remember. He remains unsold at his 2 crore base price.

02.06 pm

Alex Hales has gone with a base price of 2 crore. Finds no bids, with franchises having already spent large chunks of money on the marquee players that came up first.

Saurabh Tiwary, who fetched a whopping $US 1.6 million from Bangalore in 2011, has a base price of only 50 lakh. There’s some bidding for him, with Delhi and Kolkata interested, and Delhi eventually bag him for 70 lakh. No Right to Match from RCB.

02.03 pm

And the first batsman of the afternoon is Cameron White. He’s been with Hyderabad and Bangalore in the past, but no bids for him this time at the high base price of 1.5 crore. Unsold.

Another Australian, Nic Maddinson, with a 50 lakh base price, has better luck. RCB have the opening and closing bid for the base price.

Darren Bravo has a base price of 50 lakh, but finds no takers. Unsold.

01.58 pm

We’re about to resume action. Here’s what Venky Mysore, TA Sekar and Ranjib Biswal had to say on strategies, the Mudgal report and else:

Venky Mysore, Kolkata Knight Riders

A part of the strategy was to try and conserve the (Right to Match) card just in case we needed it later. We could have paid a little bit of price for using cards earlier, but luckily, we got everyone (Jacques Kallis and Yusuf Pathan) we would have used the card for. I think we came out okay.

We just wanted to make sure we had sufficient (bowling) options and somebody (Morne Morkel) who had the pace and could be effective as a strike bowler in all conditions, whether it’s at home or on the road. We’ve also got Umesh Yadav, Vinay Kumar – a very smart bowler – apart from Morne. We also have three spinners, so I think the bowling is quite strong.

The general view going around among the cricket community is that he (Yusuf) is one of the match-winners. It’s just a bit unfortunate that he probably hasn’t fired as many times.

TA Sekar, Delhi Daredevils

It’s (the cautious approach) a management decision, we had a strategy in place and we’re going according to it. It has nothing to do with what happened last year. In my opinion, I don’t think any team will buy 27 players this time. It’ll be anywhere between 20 and 24. Everyone is shrinking their teams to buy players.

Ranjib Biswal on the Mudgal report

That’s untrue that names of players have been mentioned. Mr Mudgal has also clarified that. Your guess is as good as mine, because the matter lies with the Supreme Court and they’ll take a view on March 7.

Ranjib Biswal on possible relocation of the IPL

We’re waiting for election dates. If it’s not possible to hold all the matches in India, then we’re looking at a few possible venues where we can host the game, and bring back the IPL at a later date.

01.21 pm

Some pointers for the coming session. RCB, of course, are out of the big-ticket race, with the least budget left. They’ve got a top order of Kohli, Gayle, AB de Villiers and Yuvraj – enough to guarantee a fair few wins, but a lack of depth in the squad and little money remaining. Both KKR and SRH have built a stable of fast bowlers. KKR have Umesh, Vinay, Morne Morkel, with Kallis as back-up. SRH have Steyn, Ishant, Bhuvneshwar and Irfan Pathan, with Sammy also in the mix. RR, MI and CSK have had the least to spend, and it has shown. CSK, though, have shown good Twenty20 nous by using the Right to Match card for Faf du Plessis, though their purchase of Brendon McCullum and splurging on Dwayne Smith could be questioned. MI used their Right to Match card for Pragyan Ojha, a good option, but probably miscalculated in not using it for Mitchell Johnson. RR have acquired only Hodge and Steve Smith, both solid purchases, but need to add more. KXIP and DD have built remarkably stable looking squads so far.

But as they say in the movies, this is just the interval. There’s lots more to come. Stay tuned.

01.13 pm

The squads as of now:

Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Faf du Plessis, Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Smith. Budget left: 8.5 crore. Squad Strength: 8. Overseas Players: 4.

Delhi Daredevils: M Vijay, Kevin Pietersen, Dinesh Karthik, JP Duminy, Manoj Tiwary, Quinton de Kock, Mohammad Shami, Rahul Sharma. Budget left: 18.85 crore. Squad Strength: 8. Overseas Players: 3.

Kings XI Punjab: David Miller, Manan Vohra, Virender Sehwag, Mitchell Johnson, George Bailey, Cheteshwar Pujara, Shaun Marsh, Wriddhaman Saha, Thisara Perera. Budget left: 22.65 crore. Squad Strength: 9. Overseas Players: 4.

Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Lasith Malinga, Kieron Pollard, Harbhajan Singh, Ambati Rayudu, Michael Hussey, Zaheer Khan, Pragyan Ojha. Budget left: 10.45 crore. Squad Strength: 8. Overseas Players: 3.

Rajasthan Royals: Shane Watson, Ajinkya Rahane, James Faulkner, Stuart Binny, Sanju Samson, Brad Hodge, Steve Smith. Budget left: 16.1 crore. Squad Strength: 7. Overseas Players: 4.

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Shikhar Dhawan, Dale Steyn, David Warner, Darren Sammy, Amit Mishra, Aaron Finch, Irfan Pathan, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Budget left: 11 crore. Squad Strength: 9. Overseas Players: 4.

12.33 pm

Rahul Sharma has made headlines in the IPL. For a good economy rate first up, for a rave party off the field, and for being hit by Chris Gayle for five sixes in an over. Delhi Daredevils bag the legspinner for 1.9 crore.

Robin Peterson, who brings left-arm variety and a handy bat lower down the order, remains unsold at his 1 crore base price.

The legendary Muttiah Muralitharan is the last player to go under the hammer before the lunch break. At 1 crore, he might be worth a bid, in spite of his advancing years. RCB make the opening bid, and that will remain the closing bid.

That concludes a hectic morning session. The auction will resume at 2 pm, India time.

12.29 pm

Murali Kartik has been an IPL nomad of sorts. He’s got a base price of 1 crore. He’s got the skill still, but no franchise seems interested. Kartik goes unsold.

Nathan McCullum, also with 1 crore as his base price, goes unsold too. Perhaps the franchises are saving up for when Corey Anderson comes on the block?

12.27 pm

Ajantha Mendis was bid for fiercely in the 2012 auction. Not so much interest now. Unsold, even though his base price was 50 lakhs. No market for Sri Lankan players in this auction.

12.26 pm

Chennai and Delhi seem quite interested in Piyush Chawla. KKR also enter the fray. He has had a fair amount of success in past IPLs with KXIP. CSK drop out of the race early, but the other two continue to raise their paddles, and Chawla goes to KKR for 4.25 crore. KXIP aren’t going to exercise their Right to Match card.

Pragyan Ojha is up next among the spinners. Mumbai and Sunrisers, both jump in, as do Delhi. Delhi’s strategy of no retentions is serving them well, and they still have some budget left and they win the bid at 3.25 crore. But Mumbai request some time to see if they want to match the bid, and after some deliberation opt to use their lone card. They’ve lost Mitch and Dinesh Karthik, but get back Ojha.

12.19 pm

After the latest round of bidding, here’s how the teams stand.

Chennai Super Kings

Retained: MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, R Ashwin

Bought: Faf du Plessis, Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Smith

Mumbai Indians

Retained: Rohit Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, Kieron Pollard, Lasith Malinga, Ambati Rayudu

Bought: Michael Hussey, Zaheer Khan

Kolkata Knight Riders

Retained: Gautam Gambhir, Sunil Narine

Bought: Jacques Kallis, Robin Uthappa, Yusuf Pathan, Shakib Al Hasan, Umesh Yadav, Vinay Kumar, Morne Morkel

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Retained: Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers

Bought: Yuvraj Singh, Parthiv Patel, Albie Morkel, Ashok Dinda, Mitchell Starc, Ravi Rampaul

Kings XI Punjab

Retained: David Miller, Manan Vohra

Bought: Virender Sehwag, Mitchell Johnson, George Bailey, Cheteshwar Pujara, Shaun Marsh, Wriddhiman Saha

Delhi Daredevils

Retained: None

Bought: M Vijay, Kevin Pietersen, Dinesh Karthik, JP Duminy, Manoj Tiwary, Quinton de Kock, Mohammed Shami

Sunrisers Hyderabad

Retained: Shikhar Dhawan, Dale Steyn

Bought: David Warner, Darren Sammy, Amit Mishra, Aaron Finch, Irfan Pathan, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar

Rajasthan Royals

Retained: Shane Watson, Ajinkya Rahane, James Faulkner, Sanju Samson, Stuart Binny

Bought: Brad Hodge, Steven Smith

12.17 pm

And up comes Morne Morkel. Delhi’s hero in 2012, and inexplicably left out of their qualifying match against Chennai and then used sparingly in 2013. He may not contribute much with the bat, but Morne is more than a handful with the ball, and well worth the interest he’s generating. KKR bag him for 2.8 crore, again to KKR, who are also adding a fair few fast bowlers. Delhi don’t use their Right to Match card, a good thing perhaps, because they didn’t use Morkel in the best manner possible either.

12.14 pm

Praveen Kumar is up next, and he has a 2 crore base price. Unsold. That’s another surprising call by the franchises. Praveen can be handy with the bat and reliable with the ball.

Birthday boy Vinay Kumar, who has led Karnataka to the Ranji title a fortnight ago and the Irani Cup just minutes earlier, attracts a fair bit of interest. No bids from RCB, and they decline to Right to Match too, with KKR bagging him for 2.8 crore.

12.10 pm

The quickest Indian bowler, Umesh Yadav, first came to prominence in the IPL with Delhi Daredevils. He’s generating a fair bit of interest from Chennai and KKR, but CSK drop out after the 2 crore mark, at which point Hyderabad enter. The Sunrisers might be looking to build a stable of fast bowlers with a pace-friendly pitch. But KKR win out with a 2.6 crore bid after Delhi opt to not exercise their Right to Match card.

12.07 pm

RCB haven’t used any of their Right to Match cards, will they do so for Ravi Rampaul? They open the bidding for him at 50 lakh, but strangely continue bidding for him against KKR, driving the price up. Vijay Mallya continues to hold the paddle up and they get Rampaul for 90 lakhs. As far as I can recall, the first sub-crore buy of this auction.

12.05 pm

Mohammed Shami, ex-KKR and currently India’s most promising pacer, goes up on the block. It’s between Delhi and Kolkata, and given how Shami has bowled, it’s unsurprising that he’s attracting a fair bit of interest. Kolkata don’t have any Right to Match cards left. Punjab make a late entry, but Delhi win in the end with a 4.25 crore bid. Shami and Bhuvneshwar have gone for the same price, to different franchises though.

12.02 pm

Bhuvneshwar Kumar is another one of the Indian names who was likely to have attracted widespread interest. Hyderabad are interested, and so are Kolkata, but they drop out when the bidding crosses 2.5 crore. Delhi are in it though, and battling with Hyderabad, who continue to hold strong. Bhuvneshwar will join Steyn and Ishant at Hyderabad for 4.25 crore.

11.59 am

Ashok Dinda has had a decent domestic season. CSK open the bidding for him, but its RCB again who add to their stable. Dinda goes for 1.5 crore to the Bangalore franchise.

Ishant Sharma, recently dropped from the Indian team, is up next. He did well for Hyderabad in the last season, but perhaps his recent international travails have counted against him. The bidding isn’t fast and furious, but then, people might say Ishant’s bowling isn’t as fast and furious as it used to be either, when KKR bought him for $US 950,000 in 2008. RCB enter the fray belatedly, but Hyderabad seem to want Ishant back and keep the new-ball combination with Steyn alive. They get him for 2.6 crore.

11.55 am

Mitchell Starc can swing it and provides variety with left-arm pace. KKR and DD both in it, but RCB also enter. Are RCB keeping track of their budget? I’m not too sure they are. But they bag Starc for 5 crore. They don’t have too much money remaining.

11.48 am

Tillakaratne Dilshan has a high base price of 2 crore. He’s been largely disappointing for RCB in the last three years, and goes unsold. Three Sri Lankan stars with the 2 crore base price have gone unsold now. Jayawardene, Angelo Mathews and Dilshan.

Azhar Mahmood, with a 1 crore base price, also goes unsold. Did his age count against him? His performances in the past two years have been good.

The final name of this lot is Shakib Al Hasan at a 1 crore base price. KKR are bidding for their old player against Delhi. Steady and quick bidding between the two, and it concludes with KKR winning back their player for 2.8 crore.

11.45 am

Angelo Mathews, with a high base price of 2 crore, also doesn’t find a buyer. He didn’t have much success with Pune Warriors, and the high base price was no doubt a deterrent.

Irfan Pathan’s bidding is opened by Rajasthan Royals. Will he get more than Yusuf, who went for 3.25? He doesn’t, goes for 2.4 crore to Sunrisers Hyderabad. Delhi don’t use their Right to Match card either.

11.42 am

Albie Morkel is in the auction, and that might be a novel experience for him. He was retained by Chennai in 2011, but his stock has since fallen. Delhi open the bidding at 1.5 crore, but RCB bag Albie’s services for 2.4 crore.

David Hussey, who attracted nearly double of what his brother Michael had in 2008, doesn’t find a buyer this time around. Goes unsold.

11.38 am

Thisara Perera, a handy Twenty20 player who’s given fantasy league players plenty of points, starts off surprisingly slow. Kings XI and RCB start the bidding for him from a 50 lakh base price. KXIP get him for 1.6 crores – good value for money.

Preity Zinta: Very satisfied so far. Let’s see what happens, there is quite a bit of the team left (to build). (Shaun) Marsh is back, which is big positive. Mitchell (Johnson) will be very good on the sort of tracks we have, and he fits into our plan of things.

Stephen Fleming: It was very much a stance of who came out first (choosing du Plessis over Mike Hussey). We valued them both, but the way the bidding is going and the way the room is working, it’s very risky to leave opportunities. We’d have loved to have Michael Hussey back in the side, but since he came up after Faf, we just had to go with that.

He (Brendon McCullum) is a back-up keeper, but he’s the No. 2 in the world as a T20 batsman as well. His recent form has been very good, he is a leader and his relationship with Dhoni is very good, which was seen during the latest New Zealand-India series. He is a dynamic player. We’ve got two out of the three of Mike Hussey, Faf du Plessis and McCullum. Brendon is a utility player who can play up or down the order, and if Dhoni is to pick up an injury, Brendon can fill in.

11.36 am

Yusuf Pathan bagged a whopping $US 2.1 million last time. Don’t think he’ll go for as much this time. In fact, he almost goes unsold, until Hyderabad start the bidding, with Mumbai also showing late interest. Mumbai drop out of the race soon, but Punjab are also interested in Yusuf now. Hyderabad seem fairly keen on him though and he goes to them for 3.25 crores. But Kolkata spring a surprise and use their Right to Match card. Yusuf stays with KKR.

11.33 am

That lot of wicketkeepers is done. We’ll be moving on to allrounders. Some value buys could be in the offing. Steven Smith, who has done well with the bat, can bowl, and is electric in the field is the first name. KKR and RR start the battle for Smith at the 2 crore base price.

The Royals indicate they’re out when the bid crosses 3 crore, but Smith is evidently much in demand. They re-enter the bidding before it closes as Smith’s price continues to go up. And the Royals get Smith for 4 crore. High price, but still a good buy, I’d think.

11.29 am

Craig Kieswetter has been a handy limited-overs player for England. But at a relatively high 1.5 crore base price, he has no takers. Goes unsold.

Kusal Perera is up next, and he has a 50 lakh base price. Still finds no takers.

11.27 am

Parthiv Patel is drawing some interest now. RCB and MI vying for his services. He’s been in good form in domestic cricket, but not had similar success in Twenty20s. RCB bag him for 1.4 crore.

Matthew Wade at 1 crore is up next, but goes unsold.

11.25 am

Wriddhiman Saha up now. As a pure wicketkeeper, he’s probably the best in India at the moment. And his batting is pretty handy too. He’s not had too many opportunities in the IPL, being with CSK for the past three years, where Dhoni has performed the wicketkeeper-batsman role like no one else can. But lots of interest for Saha now, and he goes to KXIP for 2.2 crore.

11.23 am

Quinton de Kock goes under the hammer now at 1 crore. Punjab and Delhi start the bidding. De Kock hasn’t had great success in the IPL, but his recent form for franchise and country has been magnificent. The bids roll steadily on, and his price goes past 3 crore. And Delhi get de Kock for 3.5 crore.

11.21 am

It’s the wicketkeepers into the action now. Naman Ojha, with a 50 lakh base price. Goes unsold. That’s surprising again. For 50 lakh, a wicketkeeper-batsman such as Ojha, who has been in good form, might have been a good buy.

11.19 am

Tom Moody: We were fortunate to have retained Shikhar Dhawan and Dale Steyn, both world-class players – a batsman and a bowler. So we came into the auctions with confidence and we knew which players we wanted to target.

11.09 am

Chennai have Dwayne Smith for 4.5 crore. Do Mumbai use their card? Kumble shakes his head. Smith will be a Super King. And here’s another 10-minute break. Much needed for weary fingers to whip out calculators.

11.07 am

The next batsman of the lot is Dwayne Smith, with a base price of 1.5 crore. Delhi start with the bidding for the ex-Mumbai Indian player. Mumbai still have a Right to Match card, but for now it’s between Delhi and Hyderabad. But here’s Punjab also into the fray. Smith can hit the ball long and bowl a few overs. And now Chennai enter the bidding and the price goes past 4 crore.

11.05 am

Manoj Tiwary comes up now with a base price of 2 crore. Delhi open the bidding for the talented batsman, who’s had the worst luck with injuries. The opening bid doesn’t remain the closing win, with Hyderabad entering the bidding at the last moment. Tiwary finally goes to Delhi for 2.8 crore. KKR do not use their Right to Match card.

11.02 am

Shaun Marsh, who took the inaugural IPL by storm, is up now. Not many bids for him, but he goes back to KXIP for 2.2 crore.

11.01 am

Brad Hodge, the Australian veteran who earned a recall for the World Twenty20, is up now. Rajasthan make the opening bid for their veteran. And RCB also enter the fray. Rajasthan have a Right to Match card, but they raise it to 2.4 crore, and win the bid. Hodge, who has repeatedly stressed on how much he loves the Royals, stays with them.

10.59 am

Robin Uthappa to go under the hammer now. He’s another candidate for a high price. Ex-Pune player, and no Right to Match card to worry about. Rajasthan open the bidding, and KKR come in, as do Delhi. The bidding didn’t start as quickly as for some of the other marquee Indian names, but stays steady. Uthappa hits the 5 crore mark, and is sold to KKR for that sum. He’s played for a variety of franchises now.

10.56 am

JP Duminy now. RCB open the bidding at 1 crore. Delhi also seem to want Duminy. And he goes to the Daredevils for 2.2 crore.

10.54 am

Cheteshwar Pujara is up next. Base price of 1.5 crore. No bids for a long time, until KXIP enter. And belatedly, Delhi also jump in. Pujara’s bidding is progressing like his innings. Sedate start, and gathering more momentum. But it doesn’t hold for long, and he goes to KXIP for 1.9 crore. RCB don’t use their Right to Match card.

10.52 am

Aaron Finch is up next. Delhi and Rajasthan go for him, but Rajasthan drop out at 2 crore, at which point Sunrisers enter. The bid for Finch, ex-Pune player and in no danger of being Right to Match-ed, progresses quickly. And Sunrisers get a third opener, bagging Finch for 4 crore.

10.50 am

The first proper shocker of the auctions. Ross Taylor remains unsold. He’s been in form, he’s been good in IPL in the past, Indian crowds like him. Why? Who knows…

10.49 am

Darren Sammy is happy to be with Sunrisers again.

Great to be back @SunRisers welcome @davidwarner31 #RiseUp

— Darren Sammy (@darrensammy88) February 12, 2014

10.46 am

Mumbai bid successfully for Zaheer at 2.60 crore. Will RCB exercise their Right to Match card? They won’t. Zaheer goes back to Mumbai. And that concludes the second set of marquee players. Only Jayawardene remained unsold in both sets.

10.45 am

Zaheer Khan is the final name in the marquee players lot. Bidding starts at 1 crore. RCB and MI enter the bidding. Zaheer, of course, was with RCB last season and they can get him with one of their cards. But here are the Sunrisers, into the fray. It’s between them and MI for now, as the price creeps up above 2 crore.

10.43 am

Amit Mishra is up next. He may not have got as many chances with the Indian side as he could have, but there’s no dearth of franchises vying for his services. He’s been outstanding in the IPL with the ball and can add handy runs with the bat too. Delhi and Kings XI are locked in a bidding war for Mishra, and take the price past 4 crore. Sunrisers have a Right to Match card though.

Surprisingly, RCB enter the bid after it’s gone past 4 crore. Do they plan to have the budget to buy the minimum of 16 players? But Delhi bag him for 4.75 crore, and expectedly enough, Hyderabad use their card. Mishra stays a Sunriser.

10.41 am

And Michael Hussey is sold to Mumbai for 5 crore. Well worth the price in my opinion. John Wright and Anil Kumble should enjoy having him around.

10.39 am

Michael Hussey is up next. Veteran, but a proven Twenty20 performer and a wonderful man to have in your side. Mumbai and Delhi open the bidding war for Hussey. Chennai have already used up their Right to Match card for du Plessis, so Hussey will go to the highest bidder. Delhi and Mumbai take the price past 4 crore.

10.38 am

Brendon McCullum is up next. CSK enter the fray at 2 crore. They’re battling with Mumbai Indians for McCullum. Waiting in the wings with a Right to Match card are KKR though. How will the bidding go? McCullum goes past 3 crore, and he’s sold to Chennai for 3.25 crore. No card from KKR and McCullum will join Dhoni and co at Chennai.

10.36 am

And Dinesh Karthik goes to Delhi for 12.5 crore. The price is too high for Mumbai to use their Right to Match card. Maybe they’d have been better off buying back Mitch?

10.34 am

Dinesh Karthik up now, and he’s likely to be in high demand as well, though Mumbai have their Right to Match card left. Delhi and Sunrisers are going at it fiercely, and the bid has escalated to past 8 crores in the blink of an eye. Karthik becomes the second player to breach the 10 crore mark, with Delhi, his old franchise, having the bid.

But KKR now jump in and the bidding for Karthik goes on. He was always likely to attract a huge price. And Delhi have raised it to 12.5 crore.

10.32 am

Faf du Plessis up now and Mumbai open the bidding. Chennai must be clutching on to their Right to Match card. Delhi and Mumbai are going at it now, as the bid crosses 4 crore. Delhi win it at 4.75 crore, and as expected, Chennai use their lone Right to Match card for the South African Twenty20 captain. Faf remains with CSK.

10.29 am

Darren Sammy now up, and Rajasthan Royals seem pretty keen on him as do Delhi. Rajasthan drop out of the race quickly though, but Delhi now have to ward off RCB’s bids. RCB have a tight budget, but they’re going for Sammy. I don’t see how they can afford to pay anything more than 2 crore for most players now, and Delhi have Sammy at 3.5 crore. Will Hyderabad use their Right to Match? Yes they do! Sammy remains with Sunrisers, and the Right to Match cards are proving quite handy for franchises.

10.26 am

We’re now back for the second lot of marquee players. The first name up is George Bailey, the Australian Twenty20 captain, and all-round good guy. KXIP enter the fray at the 2 crore base price. Delhi now in, but Preity Zinta at the KXIP table isn’t going to give up that easily. And Bailey is sold for 3.25 crore to KXIP, who are building quite an exciting stable of players.

10.23 am

So RCB have the least amount of money left now. Vijay Mallya, who’s at the table, says they were keen on Yuvraj Singh. None of the teams who retained five players – CSK, MI and RR – were successful in bidding for any of the first lot of marquee players, which was only to be expected given their tight budgets at the start.

Vijay Mallya on Yuvraj Singh: Very, very happy to have Yuvraj Singh as part of RCB squad. We were very keen on him, Virat Kohli, our captain, was very keen on him too. All of us are very happy. Those extra 4 crore was somewhat unfortunate, but auctioneer has sole discretion. I think everyone saw him look around the room before the hammer fell, but he chose to continue the bidding. But life must go on. Bottom line is we are very happy. We now have to address our bowling, which we will during the course of the auctions. Fortunately, there are a lot of options available. Looking strong.

Mallya on Mudgal report: Coincidentally, I asked yesterday at the briefing meeting about the so-called six players. There is no evidence to suggest there are six players, or indeed any tainted player. This is all just a bunch of speculation. What I know is do know is that the Supreme Court has permitted this auction to go ahead. So, therefore, I don’t think there should be any concern.

Stuff like that, it happens in every sport. I can say one thing for sure. All of us would not have been sitting here if we were not excited about the IPL, committed to IPL and if brand IPL was not growing in value. It’s unfortunate that there are such scams from time to time, but I think the core of IPL is sound, and we should all protect it.

Meanwhile, Jayawardene remained unsold, maybe his base price of 2 crore was a tad too high for franchises. He’s a classy player but hasn’t set the T20 world on fire. The KXIP bunch of Miller, Mitch, Sehwag and Vohra looks interesting. And how will Vijay adjust to being a Delhi player? Elsewhere, Warner and Dhawan opening the batting should be explosive as well.

10.18 am

How the teams stack up after the first lot:

Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo. Budget left: 21 crore.

Delhi Daredevils: Kevin Pietersen, M Vijay. Budget left: 46 crore.

Kings XI Punjab: David Miller, Manan Vohra, Virender Sehwag, Mitchell Johnson. Budget left: 34.1 crore.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir, Sunil Narine, Jacques Kallis. Budget left: 32.5 crore.

Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Lasith Malinga, Kieron Pollard, Harbhajan Singh, Ambati Rayudu. Budget left: 21 crore.

Rajasthan Royals: Shane Watson, Ajinkya Rahane, James Faulkner, Stuart Binny, Sanju Samson. Budget left: 22.5 crore.

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers, Yuvraj Singh. Budget left: 16.5 crore.

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Shikhar Dhawan, Dale Steyn, David Warner. Budget left: 32.5 crore.

10.12 am

The summary of how the first lot went:

KXIP have shelled out 6.5 crore for Mitchell Johnson and 3.2 crore for Virender Sehwag. KKR used their Right to Match Card to get Jacques Kallis for 5.5 crore, Delhi used theirs to get Kevin Pietersen for 9 crore and bid succesfully for M Vijay for 5 crore. RCB broke the bank for Yuvraj Singh, shelling out 14 crore, which might be the highest bid we’ll see today.

10.07 am

Mitchell Johnson, the man with the moustache and massacre, is up next. Expectedly enough, he’s got the bidding going quickly. CSK and KXIP are both interested. KXIP bid 6.5 crores, which prompts Chennai to drop out. Mumbai aren’t going to use their lone Right to Match card. Maybe they’re saving it for Dinesh Karthik? As it is, KXIP have Mitch, and we have a 10-minute break after the first lot of marquee players.

10.05 am

And Warner is sold to Hyderabad for 5.5 crore. Delhi are not going to use their Right to Match card, so Warner will partner Shikhar Dhawan at Hyderabad.

10.04 am

David Warner is up next. Mumbai Indians and Sunrisers Hyderabad start the bidding for the in-form Australian dasher. The price is rising quickly, after a slightly late start. Laxman and Srikkanth at one table, Kumble and Wright at the other. Warner’s price has crossed 5 crore. Hyderabad have a higher purse than Mumbai at this auction.

10.01 am

And Sehwag is sold for 3.2 crore to KXIP. A good price, but rather lower than Sehwag would have got in previous IPL seasons.

10.00 am

Virender Sehwag up next. Will he attract as much interest as Yuvraj Singh? A late first bid by KXIP at the 2 crore base price. Mumbai Indians jump in now and the bidding picks up. But Sehwag is not building up as much steam as the other marquee players – other than Jayawardene – did. Delhi haven’t entered the bidding, but they could come in and get Sehwag anyway with one of their cards. Bid has crossed 3 crore.

09.57 am

And Kolkata Knight Riders use their Right to Match card and buy Kallis for 5.5 crore.

09.56 am

Jacques Kallis, recently retired and therefore fully available is up next. Chennai enter at the 2 crore base price. Delhi enter the fray once again, and KKR also jump in for their former stalwart. Kallis’ stock is picking up pace, with the bid between Chennai and KKR and past 5 crore.

09.54 am

Teams are willing to break the bank for Yuvraj. Proven Twenty20 match-winner, mega-star and loved all across India, so it’s not surprising. RCB have raised it to 14 crore. Going once, going twice… And sold. RCB have a top-order from T20 heaven in Gayle, Kohli, Yuvraj and AB de Villiers.

09.52 am

Confusion in the auction room. Madley declares Yuvraj sold to RCB for 10 crore. But the KKR table says they had raised their paddle. Someone is sitting in front of the KKR table, obscuring the view. The bid is held to be genuine. Yuvraj is still in play. 10 crore and counting, between KKR and RCB.

09.50 am

Madley mentions Yuvraj Singh and before the bidding can open, KXIP have already raised their paddle. Ness Wadia seems particularly keen to get the hometown hero back to his old franchise. Rajasthan jump in now, and the bidding is between these two. Both seem happy to go on. KXIP have a higher purse than RR in this auction. Bid’s up to 3.2 crore and RCB jump in.

RCB have taken it up a notch. Yuvraj’s bid stands at 10 crore and is with RCB now. KXIP’s enthusiasm seems to have waned at this high price.

09.48 am

And yes, Delhi have it. They use the first of their Right to Match cards. Delhi have spent less on Kevin Pietersen than they would have lost if they had retained him. Smart play. Pietersen remains a Delhi boy.

09.47 am

Hyderabad jump in for KP now, and the bidding is escalating. Chennai take it to 7.5 crore, Hyderabad aren’t stopping. They’ve gone up to 9 crore. Will Delhi jump in at the last moment with their Right to Match card?

09.45 am

Kevin Pietersen is up next. This is likely to be a fierce bidding war. Chennai open the bidding. KXIP jump in and right now both franchises going at it against each other. Within seconds, the price has gone past 4 crore

09.44 am

Mahela Jayawardene is up next. Base price Rs 2 crore. Remains unsold. That’s rather surprising, even with the high base price. Any unsold players can be brought back into the auctions tomorrow afternoon.

09.43 am

And M Vijay is sold to Delhi Daredevils for Rs 5 crore. The franchise with the biggest purse, bags one of the key marquee Indian players. Vijay will have a new IPL home.

09.42 am

The first player under the hammer is M Vijay. Base price: Rs 2 crore. Chennai Super Kings open the IPL 2014 bidding for Vijay. Delhi Daredevils jump in at 2.2, Chennai raise to 2.4 and Mumbai in with 2.6.

Delhi up the ante to 3 crores, they have the highest purse at this auctions. And here’s the Sunrisers Hyderabad who enter at 3.2.

Delhi and Hyderabad locked in fierce battle. Will Vijay go to his old franchise or join his opening partner Shikhar Dhawan? Chennai seem to have dropped out of the race, their purse strings are tight with five players retained.

09.38 am

Sundar Raman, the IPL CEO, reminds everyone that the auctions will be in Indian Rupees and Richard Madley, the auctioneer, will once again be the man wielding the hammer. “If he says pounds, or dollars, just assume it’s rupees,” says Raman.

Unlike most solemn meetings and flights, cellphones and mobile devices do not have to be switched off in this room. As is well imaginable, all teams will require constant access to the internet. Raman holds up the new ‘Right to Match’ cards. It will be interesting to see how they are used and for whom. Madley hammers the desk, and we’re all set.

09.35 am

We’re live now. All the franchise personnel are in place. Rahul Dravid, John Wright at the Rajasthan and Mumbai tables. Ranji Biswal, the IPL chairman, says IPL 7 will be grander and more popular for fans and franchises. D Shivakumar, the chairman and MD of Pepsico, the title sponsors, also says a few words. Biswal leaves with, “Good luck and let the games begin.”

09.26 am

The backroom staff and coaches have arrived at the ITC Gardenia in Bangalore. Gary Kirsten, back to coaching in India after a three-year gap, arrives with other Delhi Daredevils personnel. Anil Kumble is also in.

A quick look at how the teams stack up, going into the auctions:

Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo. Budget Rs 21 crore.

Delhi Daredevils: (no players retained, budget of Rs 60 crore).

Kings XI Punjab: David Miller, Manan Vohra. Budget Rs 43.5 crore.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir, Sunil Narine. Budget Rs 38 crore.

Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Lasith Malinga, Kieron Pollard, Harbhajan Singh, Ambati Rayudu. Budget Rs 21 crore.

Rajasthan Royals: Shane Watson, Ajinkya Rahane, James Faulkner, Stuart Binny, Sanju Samson. Budget Rs 22.5 crore.

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers. Budget Rs 30.5 crore.

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Shikhar Dhawan, Dale Steyn. Budget Rs 38 crore.

09.21 am

And finally, here’s a ready reckoner that has the details of each team’s list of retained players, their auction purse left, the number of Right to Match cards they have, and who they might be tempted to use those on.

A quick recap then. 514 players are under the hammer, set to go in 53 lots, with two sets of marquee players up first and players divided on the basis of skills – batsman, bowler, allrounder, wicketkeeper – after that. This will be the first IPL auction in Indian Rupees, and the highest base price for players is Rs 2 crore.

09.14 am

How have these eight franchises performed in previous auctions? Manoj Narayan has a selection of who their biggest hits were and who their forgettable misses were after decisions taken at the auction table in Part I and Part II.

Elsewhere, Shamya Dasgupta has the low-down on what each franchise’s building blocks are during an IPL auction, and particularly for this one. An earlier piece looks at what possible team strategies could be adopted at the table, and who is likely to go for what.

08.56 am

Welcome to the live, blow-by-blow coverage of the 2014 Indian Premier League player auctions here on Wisden India. This is set to be the biggest ever auction in terms of the number of players that can potentially go under the hammer, but even as franchises calculate budgets, form strategies, and zero in on players in the hope of building the ideal Twenty20 team, everyone will have one eye on the possible repercussions of the Mudgal Report, that was submitted on Monday.

The report indicted M Gurunath, former Chennai Super Kings team principal, of betting and passing on information and was fairly damning of several aspects that fell under its broad ambit. What will its implications be for the Chennai franchise? Or for Rajasthan Royals? Or, indeed, for the IPL itself?

Those are questions that will be answered another day though. For now, it’s the action of the auctions that will reign supreme.

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Saturday 6 February 2016

Live: IPL Auction 2016

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