Darling of IPL auction Maxwell fetches Rs 14.25 cr deal

Chennai: IPL’s perennial under-performer Glenn Maxwell once again fetched big money at the players auction with Royal Challengers Bangalore bidding a whopping Rs 14.25 crore to secure his services here on Friday.

England all-rounder Moeen Ali also went for a high price of Rs 7 crore to Chennai Super Kings. Both Maxwell and Moeen had base prices of Rs 2 crore.

In contrast, Australian Steve Smith, who was released by Rajasthan Royals, was bought by Delhi Capitals for Rs 2.20 crore, only Rs 20 lakh more than his base price.

KKR made the opening bid for Maxwell but it eventually became a two-way bidding war between Chennai Super Kings and RCB before the Virat Kohli-led team won him with a bid which came to USD 1.96 million.

Punjab Kings, who had paid Rs 10.75 crore for Maxwell in the previous auction, had released the 32-year-old following the 2020 edition in which he made 108 runs in 13 games at 15.42.

In 82 IPL games, Maxwell has made 1505 runs at a modest average of 22.13.

In the first hour of the auction, the players who went unsold were Karun Nair, Alex Hales, Jason Roy, Kedar Jadhav and Aaron Finch among others.