BANGALORE: On an amazing day of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2016 auction on Saturday, brilliant players such as New Zealand batsman Martin Guptill, South Africa’s star batsman Hashim Amla, Australia’s man of crisis Michael Hussey, Usman Khawaja, George Bailey, Shaun Tait, Tillakaratne Dilshan and his compatriot Mahela Jayawardene went unsold as none of the franchises showed any interest in them at the grand function.

The Kiwis opener Guptill, in the form of his life these days, and the others went under the hammer twice but there were no takers for them.

Meanwhile, Aussie all-rounder Shane Watson was bought for a whopping Rs 9.5 crore by Royal Challengers Bangalore while Yuvraj Singh went to the Sunrisers Hyderabad for Rs 7 crore. But the biggest surprise of the day came when Delhi Daredevils dished out a huge sum of Rs 8.5 crore for the services of uncapped all-rounder Pawan Negi.

Negi, who has been included in India’s World Twenty20 squad, is well known for his power hitting down the order and canny left-arm orthodox spin bowling and had a base price of Rs 30 lakh.Another player, who went for big money was Indian pacer Mohit Sharma. The former Chennai Super Kingsplayer had a base price of Rs 1.5 crore and was finally bought for a whopping Rs 6.5 crore by Kings XI Punjab.

Pietersen, who has done well in the recently concluded Big Bash League, was snapped up by the Pune Supergiants for Rs 3.5 crore.

Published in Dawn, February 9th, 2016