IPL Auction 2021 live updates | RR get Chris Morris for record 16.25 crores, Punjab sign Australian Jhye Richardson for 14 crores

A total of 292 players will be competing for just 61 available slots across the eight franchises
Good afternoon and welcome to our coverage of the IPL Auction 2021 in Chennai, starting at 3 pm. Like the previous year, this is a mini auction, which the eight franchises would use to fine-tune their squads and fill gaps caused by players being released and retirements during the off season.

On Thursday, a total of 292 players will be competing for just 61 available slots across the eight franchises. For the overseas players, a maximum of 22 slots are available. Hugh Edmeads is the auctioneer.

Uncapped bowlers in set 9

Mujtaba Yousuf, fast bowler. Goes unsold.

Ankit Rajpoot, released by RR, base price at 30 lakhs and he is unsold too.

Lukman Meriwala of Baroda, another name doing the rounds. DC open the bidding. Sold to DC for 20 lakhs.

Uncapped wicketkeepers in this set

Kerala’s Vishnu Vinod to start. DC open at 20 lakh. Sold to DC for 20 lakh.

Saurashtra’s Sheldon Jackson. KKR open the bidding. Sold to KKR for 20 lakhs.

Baroda captain Kedar Devdhar goes unsold.

Kerala’s Mohammed Azharudeen. At 20 lakh and RCB open the bidding. Sold to RCB for 20 lakhs.

Avi Barot is next. He goes unsold.

Allrounders in this set

Atit Sheth Unsold.

Ripal Patel. Sold to DC for 20 lakhs.

Tamil Nadu’s M. Shahrukh Khan. DC open the bidding. RCB enter the fray. DC raise it to 40 lakhs. No movement from CSK yet. RCB and DC at it and it’s close to the 2 crore mark. DC have him now at 2 crore. RCB sale it to 2.20 crore. Punjab enter and take it to 2.80 crore.RCB have him at 3.80 cr. Punjab take it to 4 crore. They scale i it to 4.40 crore. Punjab push it to 5.25 crore. Shahrukh Khan sold to Punjab for 5.25 crores.

Ayush Badoni is next. Unsold.

K. Gowtham is next. At 20 lakhs and KKR open the bidding. SRH and KKR, two very quiet groups today are bidding quite aggressively. SRH take it to 1.50 crores. It’s now 3 crores with SRH with 3 crors. In no time it has doubled to 6 crores with SRH raising the paddle. KKR pushing forward and they just about raise it to 7.25 cr. CSK suddenly enter at 7.75 crore. SRH say 8 crore. CSK say 8.75. KKR seem to have eased off. SRH after a pause push it to 9 crore. CSK say 9.25 crore. Gowtham sold to CSK for 9.25 crores.

Vivek Singh is next. Unsold.

Set 6 – Uncapped players

Himanshu Rana goes unsold.

C. Hari Nishanth, batsman. Unsold.

Sachn Baby of Kerala. Sold to RCB for 20 lakhs.

Rahul Gahlaut, batsman. Unsold.

Rajat Patidar, batsman. Sold to RCB for 20 lakhs.

Himmat Singh. Unsold.

Vishnu Solanki of Baroda. Unsold.

Spinners in set 5

England’s Adi Rashid at 1.5 crore. Unsold.

Rahul Sharma, legspinner. Base price at 50 lakhs. Unold.

Afghanistan’s Mujeeb Ur Rehman, base at 1.50 crore. Unsold.

Harbhajan Singh at 2 crore. Will Punjab take him? No activity and unsold!

New Zealand’s Ish Sodhi. Base price at 50 lakh. Unsold.

Piyush Chawla, at 50 lakhs. MI open the bidding. Chawla was the most expensive buy among the Indians last year. MI and DC compete for him. MI take it to 1 crore. Sold to MI for 2.40 crores.

Afghanistan’s Qais Ahmed at 50 lakhs. Unsold.

4.53 p.m – There will be a 5 minute break.

Set 4 this time and it’s the fast bowlers.

Adam Milne from New Zealand at 50 lakhs. MI open the bid. RR say 55 lakhs. MI say 60. It’s MI vs RR at the moment for Milne. MI scale it to 1.20 crores. Zaheer Khan raises the paddle to 1.60 for MI. MI are looking for someone to replace James Pattinson. RR want someone to partner Archer. SRH enter the fray at the last second ar 2.60 crores. Adam Milne sold to MI for 3.20 crores.

It’s the Fizz, Mustafizur Rehman of Bangladesh, base price at 1 crore. Sold to RR for 1 crore.

Australia’s Jhye Richardson, opening at 1.50 crore, RCB open the bid. DC, RCB and Punjab in the fray. DC scale t to 2.20. Quickly goes to 4 crores thanks to RCB. DC scale it to 5 crores. RCB push it to 6.25 crores. Punjab take it to 8 crores. This continues to rise. In the 9 crore mark with Punjab. RCB take it to 9.75 cr. Can Punjab scale it to 10 crores and yet they do! Jhye must be folllowing this surely. RCB say 11.25. Yes Punjab take it to 11.50 cr. Punjab now push it to 12 crores. RCB take it to 12.75, Punjab say 13 crores! Is he going to beat Maxwell here? It’s 13.50 with Punjab and RCB take it to 13.75 crores. Punjab okay with 14 crores. Jhye Richardson sold to Punab Kings for 14 crores.

Nathan Coulter Nile next, MI open bid at 1.50 crores. MI and DC compete for him now. MI take it to 3.80 crores. MI push it to 5 crores. Sold to MI for 5 crores.

West Indian Sheldon Cotterell at 1 crore is up next. Unsold.

Umesh Yadav is next at 1 crore. Relased by RCB. DC open the bid. Sold to DC for 1 crore.

After set 2, a total of 7 players have been sold, including 6 overseas players. Shivam Dube the only India sold so far.

Wicketkeepers in set 3

New Zealand’s Glenn Phillips at 50 lakhs. Unsold.

Alex Carey of Australia. He was with Capitals last season. No takers initially. Unsold.

Sam Billings of England. Attacking batsman. 2 crores. No takers.

Kusal Perera of Sri Lanka at 50 lakhs. Unsold.

Allrounders in set 2.

Glenn Maxwell now,at 2 crores. No immediate interest. KKR open at 2 crores. RR go for 2.20. KKR say 2.40 crores. KKR scale it up to 2.80 crores. Anyone for 3 crores? RCB and KKR seem to be fighting it out for Maxwell as it goes to 4 crores. RCB hold the bid right now. KKR say 4.20 crores. RCB say 4.40. CSK now enter at 4.60 crores. CSK say 5 crore. CSK have only one overseas slot to fill. CSK scale it up to 6 crores. RCB say 6.25 and CSK say 6,50. This is now a CSK vs RCB contest. Scaled up to 7 crore by CSK. it’s now 7.5 crores with CSK. CSK take it to 9 crores. CSK have a purse of nearly 20 crores. They are willing to spend nearly half on Maxwell alone. RCB push it to 9.75 crores.

CSK take it to the 10 crores mark. RCB say 10.25, CSK pondering and they take it to 10.50. RCB say 10.75. Now gone up to 11.25 and CSK say 11.50. RCB say 11.75 crores. Will a 3rd team suddenly pop in? CSK say 12 crores. RCB say 12.25 crores! Not ending anytime soon is it? RCB say 12.75 crores. Ball in CSK’s court now. Thinking… CSK take it to 13 crores. RCB – 13.25. CSK push it to 13.50 crores. Can RCB top that? Yes, 13.75 they say. CSK say 14 crores. RCB say 14.25. The CSK team is wearing masks, the RCB isn’t, just a random observation. Sold to RCB for 14.25 crores!

Kedar Jadhav for 2 crores, released by CSK now. Unsold.

Shakib Al Hasan now for 2 crores. KKR open the bids. Punjab show interest too. KKR say 2.40 crores. Punjab say 2.60. Sold to KKR for 3.20 crores.

England’s Moeen Ali is next. Base price at 2 crores. CSK show interest now. Its between CSK and Punjab at the moment. CSK scale it to 3 crores. Punjab say 3.20. CSK – 3.40. Preity raises it to 3.60. CSK say 4.20. The bidding is now at 5 crore with CSK. Now it’s gone to 6 crores with CSK. Punjab raise it to 6.75 crores. CSK push it to 7 crores. They coudnt get Maxwell, will they go all out for Moeen? Sold to CSK for 7 crores and all overseas slots filled by CSK.

Shivam Dube is up next. RR and SRH are the teams in the fray now. SRH at 95 lakhs. SRH push it to 2 lakhs. RR at 2.80 and SRH take it to 3 crores. Looks like SRH are withdrawing. Delhi enter at 3.80. RR push it to 4 crores. Sold to RR for 4.40 crores.

South Africa’s Chris Morris is up next. Mumbai and RCB in the bidding war. MI take it to 3 crores. Quickly going to 5 crores. This is going fast! MI have it at 6 crores. MI now have it at 7 crores. RCB have it at 8.25 crores. MI say 9 crores. Can RCB raise it to 10 crores? YUp, 9.25 by MI. RCB say 9.75. MI say 10 crores. RR join in at 10.25 crores! Surprise. RR have it at 10.75 now. Is Morris going to overtake Maxwell now? MI say 11.50. RR taking their time. RCB say 12.50 crores. MI scale it to 13 crores. RR say 13.25 crores. Punjab enter the fray at 13.50. RR say 13.75 and Punjab scale it to 14 crores. Morris enters Maxwell territory at 14.25 crores. RR say 14.75! Not done yet. Punjab say 15 crores. RR say 15.25 crores. Punjab say 15.50 crores. RR say 15.75 crores. Punjab push it to 16 crores. RR say 16.25 crores. Can Punjab top that? Sold to RR for 16.25 crores.

England’s Dawid Malan is up next, at 1.50 crores. He’s one of the top T20 batters in the world. Punjab open the bidding. Sold to Punjab for 1.50 crores.

4.05 p.m. – There will be a 15 minute break.

3.10 P.M
Karun Nair is the first player at 50 lakhs. He goes unsold.

Next up is England’s Alex Hales, base price 1.50 crores. He goes unsold too.

Jason Roy of England now at 2 crores. No real interest. Too late, unsold.

Steve Smith now for 2 crores. RCB open the bid for the evening! Others unmoved. Punjab keen? Will he go to RCB? Delhi raise it to 2.20 crores. Will RCB outbid that? Sold to Delhi Capitals for 2.20 crores.

Evin Lewis, 1 crore, goes unsold. Aaron Finch (1 crore) goes unsold too.

Hanuma Vihari is next and he goes unsold. End of set 1.

3 P.M.
Brijesh Patel, chairman of the IPL governing council, announces the start of the IPL auction. He makes an important announcement regarding sponsorship. VIVO have returned as the main sponsors. The previous edition was sponsored by Dream XI.

He thanks the UAE for hosting the IPL in 2020. He talks about the challenges faced last year in conducting the IPL in a bio secure environment in another country. Patel is hopeful spectators will be allowed this year. Therefore, an announcement is awaited in due course from the BCCI.

Preview
The IPL auction to be held here on Thursday carries with it several possibilities and combinations. Actually, this would have been a full-fledged auction but for the addition of two more franchises to make IPL a 10-team event in 2022. In all, 292 players will be in the fray, including 128 foreigners.

How teams fill their holes will depend on the purse left with them and the slots available, particularly in the overseas section.