Sunrisers Hyderabad won IPL 2016

In their first IPL Final, Sunrisers Hyderabad showed their intent early by opting to bat against Royal Challengers Bangalore at a venue where tall scores have been chased down nonchalantly. It was their bowling line up, the best in the tournament that delivered the maiden IPL title with an eight run win over the hosts. Ben Cutting lent the finishing touches with an unbeaten 15 ball 39 to help them post 208 for 7.

RCB had breached the 200 mark thrice previously at home this season and there was no reason why they could not do so again, except the pressure of chasing in a final. Gayle alone contributed 76, with four fours and eight sixes. Sunrisers attack was under pressure early on, but they clinically applied the brakes after Gayle wicket. Shane Watson rare off day with the bowl was costly for RCB. He fed the batsmen an assortment of hittable deliveries.

Gayle, Kohli, and de Villiers fell in the space of 20 deliveries as RCB slipped to 148 for 3. They needed 61 off 37 and they needed Watson to make up for his lapses with the ball. There were promising signs when he swatted Henriques for six over long-on, but his dismissal in the 17^th over immediately after KL Rahul wicket, left the hosts in a position they could not recover from.

Orange Cap for most runs was given to Virat Kohli for his 973 runs in the tournament. Purple Cap for most wickets was given to B Kumar for his 23 wickets in the tournament. Virat Kohli also won Man of the Tournament award. Sunrisers Hyderabad won their maiden IPL title.

Indian Premier League 2015 Auctions

The 2015 Indian Premier League (IPL) auction was held in Bengaluru on Monday, 16 February. Just like last year, Yuvraj Singh turned out to be most expensive buy with the Delhi Daredevils acquiring him for Rs. 16 cr. The Second most expensive sold out was of Dinesh Karthik to Royal Challengers Bangalore in Rs. 10.5 cr. End of day, a total of 67 players were sold out of which 44 were Indians and 23 were overseas. Some of the big players remain unsold in this season.

Two time champions Chennai Super Kings bought one batsman Michael Hussey in 1.5cr. CSK bought two all rounders Irfan Pathan and Pratyush Singh in 1.5 cr and 10 Lakhs. CSK also bought three bowlers Rahul Sharma, Kyle Abbott, and Andrew Tye in 30 Lakhs and 20 Lakhs. Two Wicket keepers Ankush Bains and Eklavya Dwivedi were bought by CSK in 10 Lakhs. In total, CSK bought eight players, five Indians and three overseas.

Delhi Daredevils spent maximum amount of money this season. They bought 14 players this season. Yuvraj Singh was bought in 16 cr and Angelo Matthews in 7.5 cr. Indian bowlers Amit Mishra and Zaheer Khan was bought in 3.5 cr and 4 cr. They also bought South African all rounder Albie Morkel in 30 Lakhs and Travis Head in 30 Lakhs. Other than these DD bought Shreyas Iyer, Gurinder Sandhu, Jaydev Unadkat, Joseph, Marcus Stoinis, CM Gautam, Kona Bharat, and KK Jiyaz.

Kings XI Punjab bought only three players because they retained most of their old players. Murali Vijay was the only expensive pick in 3 cr. They also bought Nikhil Naik, Yogesh Gowalkar. Defending Champions Kolkata Knight Riders bought seven players this season. They bought KC Cariappa in 2.4 cr, James Neesham and Brad Hogg in 50 Lakhs. They also bought Aditya Garhwal, Sheldon Jackson, Sumit Narwal, and Vaibhav Rawal.

Mumbai Indians also edited their cart and bought Aaron Finch in 3.2 cr. Bowlers Pragyan Ojha, Abhimanyu Mithun, Mitchell McClenaghan were bought in 50 Lakhs and 30 Lakhs. They also bought Aiden Blizzard, Hardik Pandya, Akshay Wakhare, Siddesh Lad, J Suchitch, and Nitesh Rana. Rajasthan Royals bought Christopher Morris in 1.4 cr. They also bought Juan Theron, Barinder Saran, Dinesh Salunkhe, Sagar Trivedi, and Pradeep Sahu.

Royal Challengers Bangalore bought some star players this time. They bought Dinesh Karthik in 10.5 cr, Darren Sammy in 2.8 cr, David Wiese in 2.8 cr, Sean Abbott in 1 cr, Adam Milne in 70 Lakhs. They also bought Sarfraz Khan, Badrinath, Jalaj Saxena, and Bhavane. Sunrisers Hyderabad team looks quite promising after buying in form players this season. They bought Trent Boult in 3.8 cr, Praveen Kumar in 2.2 cr, Kevin Peterson in 2 cr, Eoin Morgan in 1.5 cr, Ravi Bopara in 1 cr, Kane Williamson in 60 Lakhs. They also bought Laxmi Shukla, Prasanth, Hanuman Vihari, and Siddarth Kaul.

These 67 players are bought in this season. No Player from Pakistan and Sri Lanka was bought in this season. Only Angelo Mattews and Lasith Malinga made into IPL this season. Overseas players were bought mostly from England, New Zealand, Australia, and West Indies. After completing charts of teams with new players, this season is again going to be very interested. Sunrisers Hyderabad can give tough competition in this season and so Delhi Daredevils.