The franchises had $750,000 to spend at the third IPL auction in Mumbai. Here's how they went about doing it.
Mumbai Indians: They came for Kieron Pollard, the explosive Trinidad allrounder, and they got him. The bidding started at $200,000 and Mumbai entered the race when the price rose to around $260,000. The bids spiraled rapidly towards the maximum limit of $750,000 and there was ultimately a four-way tie between Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Kolkata. Lalit Modi then conducted the silent tie-breaker, where the franchises submitted undisclosed bids for Pollard, and Mumbai outbid everyone else. That was it for Mumbai at the auction, for they had exhausted their purse, but Nita Ambani was thrilled with her victory. They now have two exciting West Indian allrounders - Pollard and Dwayne Bravo. Mumbai also signed up Harshal Patel, the last of the U-19 players available in the draft.
Chennai Super Kings: A strange sequence of events. They bid aggressively for Pollard but lost out to Mumbai in the silent tiebreaker. After showing no interest in Wayne Parnell, Chennai then targeted a fast bowler, presumably as a replacement for the injured Andrew Flintoff, and started the bidding for Shane Bond at his base price of $100,000. They battled with Deccan for Bond but fell out of the race once the bid reached $630,000. Chennai then started the bidding for West Indian fast bowler Kemar Roach at his base price of $100,000. They went up to $590,000, and then paused before resuming bidding at $640,000. Chennai went as far as $710,000 but eventually lost Roach to Deccan. They then placed a bid of $210,000 for Eoin Morgan, the England batsman, but didn't raise Bangalore's bid of $220,000. They eventually purchased Sri Lankan allrounder Thissara Perera at his base price of $50,000 and filled their final slot by buying Justin Kemp for $100,000 by recalling him into the auction. There were no other bidders for Chennai's purchases.
Kolkata Knight Riders: KKR had released Ricky Ponting to free up an overseas slot and were late bidders for most of the hot buys. They entered the race for Pollard by bidding $670,000 but lost the allrounder in the silent tiebreaker after bidding maximum price of $750,000. Kolkata then waited as Chennai and Deccan fought the initial rounds over Bond and put in a first bid of $640,000 for the New Zealand fast bowler. They eventually bid maximum for him and won the tiebreaker against Deccan to secure Bond. They had no money left to take further part in the auction.
Deccan Chargers: After losing Pollard to Mumbai and Bond to Kolkata in the silent tiebreakers and Parnell to Delhi, Deccan went after Roach aggressively. They staved off competition from Chennai and Punjab for Roach and secured his services for a whopping $720,000. Perhaps Adam Gilchrist liked what he saw when Roach subjected Ponting to a barrage of short balls during the Test series in Australia. That buy left Deccan with only $30,000 in their purse and they couldn't bid any further in the auction. Deccan picked up Under-19 player Harmeet Singh in the draft at a fixed cost of Rs. 800,000.
Delhi Daredevils: Delhi didn't bid for Pollard, nor for any of the other players in Pool A - Shahid Afridi, Brad Haddin and Graeme Swann. However, they pursued Parnell, the first player up for auction from Pool B, and had competition from only Deccan, who were willing to go as far as $600,000. Delhi bid $610,000 for the South African fast bowler and no one matched that offer. Parnell, the third most expensive South African in the IPL after JP Duminy and Jacques Kallis, joined his national team-mate AB de Villiers in the Delhi squad. Delhi had $140,000 left in their purse and tried to buy Kaif towards the end of the auction but fell out of the contest after the bid passed $140,000.
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Vijay Mallya lost Pollard to Mumbai in the tiebreaker and watched from the sidelines as the bowlers - Bond, Parnell and Roach - were snapped up. Unlike most franchises, Bangalore wanted a batsman and they bid $220,000 for Morgan and found that Chennai, who had bid $210,000, and the other teams, weren't willing to go higher. Lalit Modi called Morgan's purchase a "steal". Bangalore had $530,000 left in their purse but didn't bid for several players. They were willing to go up to $240,000 for Mohammad Kaif but no further and ended the auction with only Morgan, the sole England player bought, added to their squad. They also had first choice in the draft for India's Under-19 players and chose the captain of the World Cup squad - Ashok Menaria.
Kings XI Punjab: Preity Zinta's team started the bidding for Pollard at $600,000 but lost steam once the bids entered $500,000 and beyond. They didn't bid for Haddin, Swann, Parnell or Bond and joined the bid for Roach at $610,000. They raised their bid up to $650,000 but eventually had to concede defeat as the other franchises went as far as $700,000 and beyond. Punjab, as it turned out, had only $675,000 to spend because they had bought Adrian Barath, the West Indies batsman, for $75,000 outside the auction. Punjab filled their solitary overseas slot by buying South African fast bowler Yusuf Abdulla towards the end of the auction at his base price of $50,000. They also placed a winning bid for Mohammad Kaif at $250,000.
Rajasthan Royals: Lalit Modi's twitter page before the auction began said Rajasthan had bought out Rob Quiney's contract to free up an overseas slot. They sure took their time filling it. Rajasthan weren't interested in any of the big names and they didn't enter the bidding for Pollard, Bond, Roach, Parnell, Morgan - or anyone else. Most franchises had exhausted their purses, or used up most of it, when Rajasthan placed their first bid - for Damien Martyn, retired Australian batsman, ex-ICL player. No one else wanted Martyn so Rajasthan got him at base price of $100,000. They placed another base-price bid, for Adam Voges at $50,000, and got him too. They left $600,000 unused.
"We got exactly what we wanted," said Shilpa Shetty, co-owner of Rajasthan. "He's [Martyn] a world-class player who's retired just 18 months ago. He was Shane Warne's choice and we went with it. We're also really happy with Adam Voges. He's got great stats so we're looking for a strong batting line-up."