Mortaza sold to Kolkata at $600,000

Mashrafe Mortaza, the Bangladesh allrounder, is the first player up for sale from Pool F. There were no bids for him initially but just before the hammer went down, Kolkata made a bid at the base price of $50,000. It was the start of the most dramatic sale at the auction.

Kings XI Punjab entered the race, competing against Kolkata, for Mortaza. The bids spiralled slowly towards $400,000 and when the auctioneer asked Punjab if they want to bid $410,000, Priety Zinta nodded. With teams largely sticking to raises of $10,000, the bidding went on and on and on. Kolkata finally touched the $500,000 mark. Punjab went further at $550,000. The atmosphere in the room grew quieter as the bids rose and the auctioneer attempted to speed up the process. Kolkata was the first to bid $600,000 for Mortaza at which point Punjab bowed out of the race. It was the longest lot in the auction, almost as long as a short chess game. Kolkata's purchase of Mortaza was a bit similar to Ishant Sharma's surprise $950,000 tag towards the end of the first auction last year. Mortaza's $600,000 tag was 12 times his base price - the highest jump at last year's auction was Manoj Tiwary's, from $100,000 to $675,000.

Bet there are celebrations in Narail, Mortaza's hometown. What a moment for Mortaza, he's the first Bangladesh player to be bought at the IPL auction this year. Wonder what Shakib is thinking? He's had such a fabulous year with bat and ball and yet there were no bidders for him. Do the franchises look at ICC rankings? Mortaza's base price was $50,000 and he went for $600,000. I think I missed out England allrounder Samit Patel who was on sale in the previous pool. He remained unsold.

The second player on sale from Pool F is Yusuf Abdulla from South Africa but there were no bids for him. South Australia batsman Daniel Harris and Kemar Roach, a bowler from West Indies, also did not attract bids. Neither did Aaron Bird, the New South Wales bowler, and Michael Dighton, the Tasmanian batsman.

Chennai made a bid for George Bailey, a Tasmanian batsman, for $50,000 and won it because there were no other bidders. Michael Hill, who was the U-19 captain for Australia in the last World Cup, also remained unsold, as did Brett Geeves, the Tasmanian bowler.

Kings XI Punjab asked for Jerome Taylor and they will get him at his base price of $150,000. That brings us to the end of the player auction. It's been intense and manic.