Kolkata, Chennai, Pune Warriors spend big money on first day of IPL auction

Defending champions Chennai Super Kings, Kolkata Knight Riders and new entrants Sahara Pune Warriors were the three franchises that stood out for their precision while buying the players during the first day of the auctions for the fourth edition of Indian Premier League.

Among the cricketers who crossed the million dollar barrier, the top seven were Indians with Mahela Jayawardene being the most expensive foreign player bought for $1.5 million by Team Kochi.

KKR certainly hit the jackpot in the initial rounds snapping Gautam Gambhir, who is all set to lead the side in the next edition, along with superstar of shortest version Yusuf Pathan. For stability, they have a legend like Jacques Kallis.

The Shah Rukh Khan co-owned franchise seemed to have done a lot of homework which reflected in their buys.

Brad Haddin at $ 325,000 appeared to be a smart buy by KKR, as was Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib-al-Hasan for $425,000. Although Brett Lee hasn't played much international cricket of late but at $400,000, it seemed a good bargain.

For Pune, it was a good move to get Yuvraj Singh and T20 specialist Robin Uthappa in the first round itself. Uthappa's bid of $2.1 million might raise a few eyebrows but he has the ability to win matches singlehandedly.

The smartest buy for Pune was certainly Sri Lankan Angelo Mathews ($950,000) who is one of the best all-rounders in world cricket at the moment. South African captain Graeme Smith for $500,000 and a crafty bowlers like Ashis Nehra and Nathan McCullum were also bought by them.

Chennai Super Kings who started on a subdued note however got Dwayne Bravo for as cheap as $200,000 and showed keeness in retaining Mike Hussey, Doug Bollinger, Ravichandran Ashwin, S Badrinath who are key members of the squad.

However, there were some baffling buys also on the first day of the auctions. Irfan Pathan who has hardly played any cricket during the current first-class season was bought buy Delhi for a whopping $1.9 million (approx Rs8.74 crore).

Ravindra Jadeja who has bore the brunt of the ire of Indian fans for letting the team down in consecutive Twenty20 World Cup was bought by Team Kochi for as much as $950,000.

Piyush Chawla who didn't even get 20 wickets this season was retained by Kings XI Punjab for $900,000 while world's best off-spinner Graeme Swann surprisingly went unsold.