Stokes, Pandey, Rahul emerge prized scalps

Bengaluru: England all-rounder Ben Stokes and Indian youngsters Manish Pandey and Lokesh Rahul emerged as the most valuable players at the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction here on Saturday.

Debut season winners Rajasthan Royals (RR) secured Stokes for an eye-popping Rs 12.5 crore. Stokes was the most valuable player at last year's IPL auction as well, when he was bought by Rising Pune Supergiant.

Pandey and Rahul were both sold for Rs 11 crore. Pandey was at the centre of an intense bidding war between Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Kings XI Punjab (KXIP). He eventually went to Hyderabad at 11 times his base price as Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) decided not to exercise the Right to Match (RTM) option.

Rahul started at a low base price of Rs 50 lakh. But a bitter tussle between Punjab and Hyderabad greatly inflated his price before the former took him for a whopping Rs 11 crore.

Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan sprung one of the big surprises at the auction by commanding a price of Rs nine crore. Kings XI Punjab won the bidding for the 19-year-old, but Sunrisers Hyderabad clinched his services at the last moment by exercising the RTM option. 

The Australian trio of Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Starc and Chris Lynn were also sold for hefty prices along with young Indian all-rounder Krunal Pandya, wicketkeeper-batsman Sanju Samson, star off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, Kedar Jadhav and Dinesh Karthick.
Samson was another surprise with Rajasthan deciding to fork out Rs 8 crore for his services. 

Jadhav got the fourth highest price among the Indians. He was sold to the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) for Rs 7.8 crore. He had started at a low base price, but his value quickly escalated as CSK, SRH and RR went for him.

Earlier, Maxwell started at a base price of Rs two crore and sparked a bidding war between SRH, RR and RCB before the Delhi Daredevils made a late bid to snap him up for Rs nine crore.

Starc was also at the centre of some hot competition between Kolkata Knight Riders and Kings XI Punjab. Kolkata eventually snapped up the Australian pace spearhead for a whopping Rs 9.4 crore.

Chris Lynn of Australia was sold to KKR for Rs 9.6 crore after they saw off challenges from Delhi and Bangalore. Robin Uthappa was taken by KKR for Rs 6.4 crore. Young wicket-keeper Ishan Kishan was bought by Mumbai for Rs 6.2 crore.