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The IPL 3 Auction took place on January 19, 2010 and it was a comparatively low profile auction compared to the two previous years. It was also due to the fact that the IPL franchisees had just 750,000 dollars each as the maximum limit to spend on the auction. However, there was a also a new rule this year where the franchisees could make secret ’silent tiebreaker bids’ in case there was a tie. But the excess money from the secret bid went to IPL instead of the players who could receive only the maximum bid at 750,000 dollars. There were secret bids for two players who were Keiron Pollard and Shane Bond. They were officially sold at 750,000 dollars each but as per sources, Mumbai Indians had supposedly made secret bid of more than 2 million dollars to bag Keiron Pollard while Kolkata Knight Riders had supposedly made secret bid of more than a millon dollars for Shane Bond. The other two high priced puchases and hot bids in IPL season 3 auctions were Kemar Roach and Wayne Parnell who were bagged by Delhi Daredevils for 720,000 dollars and 610,000 dollars respectively. Others won in the auction included Mohammad Kaif (Punjab, 250,000), Eoin Morgan (Bangalore, 220,000), Damien Martyn (Rajasthan, 100,000), Justin Kemp (Chennai, 100,000), Thissara Perera (Chennai, 50,000), Adam Voges (Rajasthan, 50,000) and Yusuf Abdulla (Punjab, 50,000).

There were 66 overseas players in the final IPL 3 auction list and only 10 overseas player and one Indian player were sold. The players who were sold are as follows:

Kieron Pollard (Mumbai Indians, $750,000)
Shane Bond (Kolkata Knight Riders, $750,000)
Kemar Roach (Deccan Chargers, $720,000)
Wayne Parnell (Delhi Dardevils, $610,000)
Mohammad Kaif (Kings XI Punjab, $250,000)
Eoin Morgan (Royal Challengers Bangalore, $220,000)
Damien Martyn (Rajasthan Royals, $100,000)
Justin Kemp (Chennai Super Kings, $100,000)
Thissara Perera (Chennai Super Kings, $50,000)
Adam Voges (Rajasthan Royals, $50,000)
Yusuf Abdulla (Kings XI Punjab, $50,000)

Mumbai Indians had a lot of expectations running on them with a brilliant combination of batsmen and bowlers in their team. But Chennai Super Kings also have a deadly match and so the IPL T20 season 2 opener was bound to become an excellent clash. Mumbai Indians were put to bat by Dhoni after he won the toss. Jayasuriya and Sachin Tendulkar started the proceedings although they were finding it a bit tough initially. But they played consistently with Sachin Tendulkar (59 off 49 balls), Jayasuriya (26 off 20 balls), Shikhar Dhawan (22 off 21 balls) and Abhishek Nayar (35 off 14 balls) playing the major roles. Mumbai Indians closed at 165 for 7 wickets in their 20 overs. The highlight of the Mumbai Indians innings was three sixes off Flintoff’s over by Abhishek Nayyar. Chennai Super Kings had a terrible start with Parthiv Patel out in the second ball. Matthew Hayden (44 off 35 balls), Dhoni (36 off 26 balls) and Flintoff (24 off 23 balls) were the main contributions from the Chennai Super Kings side but those were not enough. Chennai Super Kings fell short of the target of 166 and closed their innings at 146/7 after 20 overs.

Sachin Tendulkar was declared the Man of the Match while Abhishek Nayar got the maximum sixes award. The match was the perfect start to the IPL T20 season 2. The fun begins

This is the full scorecard

Batsmen Status Runs Balls 4s 6s S.Rate
Sanath Jayasuriya c Matthew Hayden b Thilan Thushara 26 20 5 0 130
Sachin Tendulkar (C) not out 59 49 7 0 120.41
Shikhar Dhawan c MS Dhoni b Manpreet Gony 22 21 2 0 104.76
JP Duminy c & b Manpreet Gony 9 7 1 0 128.57
Dwayne Bravo c Matthew Hayden b Joginder Sharma 5 4 1 0 125
Abhishek Nayar c Thilan Thushara b Jacob Oram 35 14 2 3 250
Harbhajan Singh run out (Jacob Oram) 4 2 1 0 200
Zaheer Khan c Ravichandran Ashwin b Andrew Flintoff 2 3 0 0 66.67
Pinal Shah (W) not out 0 0 0 0
Lasith Malinga
Rohan Raje
Extras: b - 1, w - 1, nb - 0, lb - 1 3
Total: (165 for 7 wickets in 20.0 overs) 165 Run Rate: 8.25

Fall of Wickets1-39 (Sanath Jayasuriya, 5.5), 2-82 (Shikhar Dhawan, 11.4), 3-95 (JP Duminy, 13.3), 4-102 (Dwayne Bravo, 14.3), 5-148 (Abhishek Nayar, 18.1), 6-157 (Harbhajan Singh, 19), 7-161 (Zaheer Khan, 19.5)

Bowling (Chennai)Bowler O M R W nb wd R/O
Manpreet Gony 4 0 32 2 0 1 8
Thilan Thushara 4 0 32 1 0 0 8
Andrew Flintoff 4 0 44 1 0 0 11
Jacob Oram 4 0 30 1 0 0 7.5
Joginder Sharma 4 0 25 1 0 0 6.25

Power Play
Power Play 1 Overs: 1-6

Chennai
Batsmen Status Runs Balls 4s 6s S.Rate
Parthiv Patel (W) c Sachin Tendulkar b Lasith Malinga 0 2 0 0 0
Matthew Hayden c Zaheer Khan b Sanath Jayasuriya 44 35 6 1 125.71
Suresh Raina c Rohan Raje b Dwayne Bravo 8 9 1 0 88.89
Andrew Flintoff c & b Harbhajan Singh 24 23 3 1 104.35
MS Dhoni (C) b Lasith Malinga 36 26 1 2 138.46
Jacob Oram c Pinal Shah b Sanath Jayasuriya 8 6 0 1 133.33
Subramaniam Badrinath c Dwayne Bravo b Lasith Malinga 0 2 0 0 0
Joginder Sharma not out 16 15 0 1 106.67
Thilan Thushara not out 1 2 0 0 50
Manpreet Gony
Ravichandran Ashwin
Extras: b - 0, w - 3, nb - 0, lb - 6 9
Total: (146 for 7 wickets in 20.0 overs) 146 Run Rate: 7.3

Fall of Wickets1-0 (Parthiv Patel, 0.2), 2-18 (Suresh Raina, 2.5), 3-70 (Andrew Flintoff, 9.5), 4-89 (Matthew Hayden, 12.4), 5-101 (Jacob Oram, 14.3), 6-109 (Subramaniam Badrinath, 15.3), 7-144 (MS Dhoni, 19.4)

Bowling (Mumbai)Bowler O M R W nb wd R/O
Lasith Malinga 4 0 15 3 0 2 3.75
Zaheer Khan 4 0 34 0 0 0 8.5
Dwayne Bravo 4 0 27 1 0 1 6.75
Rohan Raje 1 0 15 0 0 0 15
Harbhajan Singh 3 0 15 1 0 0 5
Sanath Jayasuriya 4 0 34 2 0 0 8.5

Kamran Khan has been in news for the past few days after he bowled an excellent yorker in the warm up match against Rajasthan Royals. He was also praised by his captain Shane Warne who named him the tornado and said he is a pace sensation to watch out in this IPL. Kamran Khan has been on the rise since his selection in the IPL team. He has never played a first class match and he was picked up by the Royals after they saw his bowling in a t20 match in Mumbai. However, Kamran has had to pass through a lot of difficulties before he reached even the IPL. The rookie pacer from Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, India was struggling with poverty when the IPL chance came along. He economic conditions was such that he used to sleep on railway platforms as he did not have money to book hotel rooms. He just had one pair of clothes and torn shoes for his trials and he often bowled with an empty stomach or just a meal of tea and biscuits. But IPL has changed a lot for the 18 year old talent Kamran Khan. He was signed up for $24,000 and Kamran Khan is happy with the contract. However, he said that he wished that the money would have come a bit earlier as he would not had to lose his mother two years ago. Kamran says that after sleeping in railway stations he felt quite uncomfortable sleeping in five star hotels of South Africa on his first night.

The pacer has been praised by his captain and coach Shane Warne who said that Kamran bowls at 140 plus and with some guidance Kamran will be able to develop into a great bowler in the future. Kamran is overwhelmed by is success in the last few weeks and everybody is supporting him too. But let us hope that he does not leave his concentration and becomes a very find for India in the long term.

Rajasthan Royals had a warm up match against Cape Cobras today named “Clash of the Champions” . Cape Cobras are the South African domestic T20 champions and Rajasthan Royals were the winners of IPL season 1 and so it was marketed as the clash of the the winners. The match started interestingly with Cape Cobras winning the toss and deciding to bat. The Rajasthan Royals team was mainly filled with the Indian domestic players of Rajasthan Royals. The Indian pacers of Rajasthan Royals started out well with Amit Singh, Trivedi and Kamran Khan. Kamran Khan was more prominent of the lot although he bowled only a single over giving only one run and taking a wicket. His pace was good and he was also extracting good swing from the wicket. The Cobras struggled against the Indian pacers and were 65/5 after 11.5 overs. But then their batsmen started hitting well and the Cobras ended at a respectable score of 142/8 in their allotted 20 overs.

The Rajasthan Royals batsmen were quite impressive initially with Victorian batsman Rob Quiney (34 off 22 balls) hitting the Cobras for fours and sixes. But then the rest of the Royals batsmen got out cheaply with some very good bowling and fielding performance by the Cobras. Shane Warne (21 off 19 balls) tried to save the innings but it was too late. At last they got all out in 19 overs for 115 runs and the Cobras won the match by 27 runs.

However, the positives of the game for Rajasthan Royals was that their international players looked in good from with Quiney, Warne and Henderson looking good. The other good thing was the Indian bowlers in RR squad bowled some good spells too especially Kamran Khan and Amit Singh.

The Rajasthan Royals squad are looking a good unit though they do not look as powerful as the other squads and I doubt if they would be able to retain their title this year. Let us hope that the Rajasthan Royals squad performs well when they play their full side in the IPL T20 season 2.