Bangalore: Former Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene, former New Zealand skipper Ross Taylor, Australian T20 specialist Cameron White, who captained SRH for a while last season, West Indian Marlon Samuels, pacer Daniel Christian and England batsman Ian Bell surprisingly found no buyers.
Australian wicketkeeper Matthew Wade, batsman David Hussey and retired pacer Brett Lee also suffered a similar fate but all the unsold players can come back into auction tomorrow.
Veteran Indian opener Virender Sehwag (base price Rs 2 crore), who had been released by Delhi, went to Kings XI Punjab for Rs 3.2 crore. The India discard's name was all set to be hammered in as unsold before Punjab bought his services fending off bids from Mumbai Indians.
Upcoming New Zealand all-rounder Corey Anderson, who scored the fastest ODI century smashing a 36-ball ton to breach the record set by Shahid Afridi in 1996, expectedly got a decent package of Rs 4.5 crore with the Mumbai Indians though there was strong buzz of him emerging as the highest paid from this auction.
On the other hand Yuvraj Singh fetched such a huge price tag that it surprised many since the left-hander is no longer in the ODI team due to poor form though he was picked in the squad for the World Twenty20 Championship in Bangladesh.
Similar was the case of Karthik, who does not figure in the Indian team, but generated immense interest among the franchises.
At a base price of Rs 2 crore, there was a bidding war between Delhi and Hyderabad for him before KKR also jumped into the fray. But Delhi seemed persistent and in the end, outbid the other two contenders.
The 33-year-old Pietersen was always expected to be a hot pick given that he would be available all through the season post his forced retirement from international cricket.
So it came as no surprise that his name triggered a three-way bidding between CSK, KXIP and Delhi. The player eventually went to Delhi, who exercised the 'Right to Match' provision to grab him being his former employers.
