Ishant Sharma was bought for nearly a million dollars by Kolkata © Getty Images

Ishant Sharma’s superb performance in Australia was rewarded with a cool bid of $50,000 short of a million, his base price being $150,000. With that he became Kolkata’s biggest draft, sending Sourav Ganguly into the million club.

RP Singh was the other big draft among the bowlers: Hyderabad bought him for $875,000, which rose from his base price of $200,000. Piyush Chawla, Dale Steyn, Murali Kartik, and Munaf Patel were the only other bowlers whose final bid was more than twice their respective base prices. Chawla went for $400,000 (base price: $125,000) to Mohali, Steyn for $325,000 (base price: 150,000) to Bangalore, Kartik for $425,000 (base price: $200,000) to Kolkata, and Munaf for $275,000 (base price: $100,000) to Jaipur.

Other tradings in the eighth round: Nathan Bracken bought by Bangalore for $325,000 (base price: $225,000), Makhaya Ntini by Chennai for his base price of $200,000, Lasith Malinga by Mumbai for $350,000 ($200,000), Chaminda Vaas by Hyderabad for his base price of $200,000, Ramesh Powar by Mohali for $170,000 (base price: $150,000), Umar Gul by Kolkata for his base price of $150,000, Dilhara Fernando by Mumbai for his base price of $150,000, and Nuwan Zoysa by Hyderabad for $110,000 (base price: $100,000).