Day 2: Fringe benefits as Dada gets the boot again

In the end, as it resembled a bargain sale with teams looking to add the last few players cheaply before the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction wound up on Sunday, a final 28 from the unsold list was brought back to the auction table. Each of them were choices of the franchises.

But any lingering sentiments were swept aside as the former India skipper Sourav Ganguly -- a major rejection on the first day -- failed to make it even to that bunch. There was no Brian Lara or Sanath Jayasuriya either, the former Sri Lanka stalwart having been rejected earlier in the day.

None of the owners were apologetic either as they looked ahead to tap into domestic talent with the balance amount left from the $9 million purse each had to pick their players.

Bangalore Royal Challengers owner Vijay Mallya put things in perspective after explaining why his team, now mentored by Anil Kumble, decided to let go of Rahul Dravid. He was happy the India batting great was bought by Rajasthan Royals, albeit for a modest $500,000, and said the team now looked to youth.

"Ganguly, Lara and Gayle are all top class cricketers of a particular era but nobody bid for them. No disrespect for any of them. End of the day suffice to say we couldn't afford him (Dravid)," suggesting Dravid was rather lucky.

Daniel Christian's choice may have to be put down to good fortune, at least for the moment. The Australian all rounder's name is unlikely to ring a bell with too many in the game but he sprung a major surprise after Deccan Chargers paid $900,000 -- the highest buy of the day -- to win a bidding war with Team Kochi and Delhi Daredevils.

The 27-year-old from New South Wales has begun to prosper after switching to South Australia. A right handed bat and fast medium bowler, he has played only three T20 internationals but the teams must have seen something special in the second most successful bowler in Sheffield Shield competition last season.

The other surprise package was batsman Venugopal Rao, who played for Deccan Chargers till last season. He was bought for a solid $700,000 by Delhi Daredevils after robust bidding. Franchise members otherwise spent most of the day yawning or away from their tables as most of the players ended up without buyers before the auction wound up with 127 picks in all.

There was some focus on adding up seam bowlers with Mumbai Indians shelling out $700,000 for Munaf Patel and Delhi going one better with Umesh Yadav, part of the Test squad in South Africa. Starting with a reserve price of $50,000 -- half of that of Munaf -- the Vidarbha bowler was eventually purchased for $750,000.

Chennai Super Kings had to give up their chase for two bowlers who featured prominently last year. The team who have tried to buy back most of those in their winning squad let go Lakshmipathi Balaji to Kolkata Knight Riders, for $500,000. As bidding levels plunged through the day, excitement was reserved for the very end when the auctioneer was running through the list of unsold players. Murali Kartik spun back into favour and went to Pune Warriors for $400,000.

Mohd Kaif was rejected a second time but was retuned as the very last act of the auction on a special request by the Sahara-owned Pune. However, it was left to RCB to take up after their modest bid of $130,000 was not bettered.

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Metamorphosis

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Youth Crushes experience

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All in a day's play