IPL Auction wrap: Finch joins Punter at Mumbai

Aaron Finch will join forces with former Australia captain and Mumbai Indians head coach Ricky Ponting after he was sold to the Indian Premier League franchise for AUD$661k in today's auction in Bangalore.

Mumbai were the first to show interest in the Victorian before the Delhi Devils threw their name in the ring, but ultimately it was Ponting's Indians who won the services of Australia's powerful opening batsman fresh off a match-winning 135 in Saturday's World Cup win over England. 

India's Yuvraj Singh was the big winner of the marquee player phase, walking away with an incredible $3.3 million.

Yuvraj was caught in the middle of an intense bidding war between the Royal Challengers Bangalore and Delhi, before the cashed-up Devils snapped up the powerful allrounder.

Delhi's splurge didn't stop with Yuvraj, signing Sri Lanka allrounder Angelo Matthews ($1.5m) and Indian leg-spinner Amit Mishra ($723k).

David Warner's Sunrisers Hyderabad contracted a trio of stars including besieged England ODI captain Eoin Morgan ($310k), exiled England batsman Kevin Pietersen ($413k) and the man tipped to be New Zealand's greatest ever batsman Kane Williamson ($124k).

Indian batsman Dinesh Karthik went for a whopping $2.17 million to RCB, while countrymen Murali Vijay was sold to George Bailey's Kings XI Punjab for $620k.

Sydney Thunder veteran Mike Hussey ($310k) and Perth Scorchers quick Andrew Tye ($41K) were sold to CSK, while Sydney Sixer Sean Abbott ($207k) joins BBL teammates Mitchell Starc and Nic Maddinson at RCB.

Gurinder Sandhu ($351k), new South Australia captain Travis Head ($62K) and Victoria's Marcus Stoinis ($52K) were all snapped up by Delhi.

The final Australian player taken in the IPL auction was Tasmanian batsman Aiden Blizzard, who sold for $62K to his former team and Finch's new team, Mumbai.

In a boon for Brad Hogg fans, the evergreen spinner was snaffled by the Kolkata Knight Riders as they begin their title defence this season.

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Hoggy is pumped! // Getty Images

South Africa Test captain Hashim Amla and Sri Lankan pair Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene went unsold.

Earlier: IPL Auction preview

How many players go under the hammer?

Last season saw a record 514 players up for auction, but this year there will be only 344. Prior to the auction, 724 players put their names up to be auctioned before the eight IPL franchises put their heads together and trimmed the list. However, not everyone will get picked up. With 128 players already signed, 88 spots are up for grabs today.

Auction agenda

There will be five phases: marquee players, batsmen, bowlers, wicketkeepers and allrounders. Marquee players are the best of the best and will go up first, ordered by their base price. So, in order: $415k - Hashim Amla, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Kathik, Kevin Pietersen; $311k - Angelo Matthews, Eoin Morgan; $207k - Kumara Sangakkara, Aaron Finch, Mahela Jayawardene, Amit Mishra; $104k - Murali Vijay, Kane Williamson.

Today will see 37 Australians in the IPL meat market, with veterans Mike Hussey, Brad Hogg and Brad Hodge once again throwing their hat in the ring. 

Hogg teases IPL return

Batsman: Michael Hussey, Cameron White, Brad Hodge, Jonathan Dean, Callum Ferguson, Aiden Blizzard, Michael Klinger Travis Head, Marcus Harris, Craig Simmons

Bowlers: Ben Hilfenhaus, Michael Beer, Nathan Lyon, Doug Bollinger, Sean Abbott, Cameron Boyce, Brad Hogg, Peter Siddle, Shaun Tait, Gary Putland, Ben Laughlin, Gurinder Sandhu, Joel Paris, Dirk Nannes, Nicholas Winter, Andrew Tye, Ryan Duffield

Wicketkeepers: Matthew Wade, Ben Dunk, Tim Ludeman, James Peirson

Allrounders: David Hussey, Nathan Reardon, Ashton Agar, Adam Zampa, Marcus Stoinis

The playing group

The eight squads are comprised of a minimum of 16 players and maximum of 27. Each club has nine overseas spots available, and of the 72 across the league, 44 have already been contracted.

Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni, Ravi Ashwin, Dwayne Bravo, Ravindra Jadeja, Suresh Raina, Faf du Plessis, Dwayne Smith, Brendon McCullum, Ashish Nehra, Mohit Sharma, Ishwar Pandey, Samuel Badree, Matt Henry, Mithun Manhas, Ronit More, Baba Aparajith, Pawan Negi, Mike Hussey ($310k)

Delhi Daredevils: Mohammed Shami, Quinton de Kock, Manoj Tiwary, JP Duminy, Kedar Jadhav, Mayank Agarwal, Shahbaz Nadeem, Saurabh Tiwary, Jayant Yadav, Imran Tahir, Nathan Coulter-Nile ($879k), Yuvraj Singh, Angelo Matthews, Amit Mishra

Kings XI Punjab: George Bailey ($672k), David Miller, Manan Vohra, Mitchell Johnson ($1.34m), Glenn Maxwell ($1.24m), Virender Sehwag, Rishi Dhawan, Wriddhiman Saha, Shaun Marsh ($455k), Beuran Hendricks, Thisara Perera, Gurkeerat Mann Singh, Sanddep Sharma, Axar Patel, Parvincer Awana, Shardul Thakur, Anureet Singh, Shivam Sharma, Karanveer Singh, Murali Vijay

The genius of Maxwell

Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautum Gambhir, Sunil Narine, Robin Uthappa, Piyush Chawla, Yusuf Pathan, Shakib Al Hasan, Morne Morkel, Umesh Yadav, Manish Pandey, Chris Lynn ($269k), Pat Cummins ($207k), Ryan ten Doeschate, Suryakumar Yadav, Andre Russell, Veer Pratap Singh, Kuldeep Yadav

Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Lasith Malinga, Kieron Pollard, Ambati Rayudu, Harbhajan Singh, Corey Anderson, Aditya Tare, Jasprit Bumrah, Josh Hazlewood ($103k), Marchant de Lange, Pawan Suyal, Shreyas Gopal, Lendl Simmons, Unmukt Chand, Vinay Kumar, Parthiv Patel, Aaron Finch ($661k)

Rajasthan Royals: Shane Watson (undisclosed), Stuart Binny, James Faulkner (undisclosed), Ajinkya Rahane, Sanju Samson, Steve Smith ($828k), Rajat Bhatia, Tim Southee, Dhawal Kulkarni, Abhishek Nayr, Kane Richardson ($207k), Ben Cutting ($166k), Karun Nair, Deepak Hooda, Dishant Yagnik, Vikramjeet Malik, Ankit Sharma, Rahul Tewatia, Pravin Tambe

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Steve Smith taking one of the catches of IPL 2014

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle, Mitchell Starc ($1.03m), Nic Maddinson ($103k), Varun Aaron, Ashok Dinda, Harshal Patel, Vijay Zol, Abu Mechim, Sandeep Warrier, Yogesh Takawale, Yuzvendra Chahal, Rilee Rossouw, Iqbal Abdulla, Manvinder Bisla, Mandeep Singh, Dinesh Karthik ($2.17m), S Badrinath

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Shikhar Dhawan, Dale Steyn, David Warner ($1.14m), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Moises Henriques ($207k), Lokesh Rahul, Parveez Rasool, Naman Ojha, Ashish Reddy, Ricky Bhui, Chama Milind, Karn Sharma, Kevin Pietersen, Eoin Morgan, Kane Williamson

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David Warner switch-hitting for Hyderabad

Money in the bank

The eight IPL franchises have a record 640 million rupees ($13 million) to spend this season. While most of the salary cap is already tied up with the existing squad, the Delhi Daredevils enter the auction with the fattest wallet, bursting at $8.2 million. While Delhi have cash to burn, the Chennai Super Kings enter the auction with lightest pockets.

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