Mahendra Singh Dhoni may have lost the Indian Premier League final but every run he scored in the 44-day tournament was worth nearly Rs 1.5 lakh.
NEW DELHI: Mahendra Singh Dhoni may have lost the Indian Premier League final but every run he scored in the 44-day tournament was worth nearly Rs 1.5 lakh.
The Chennai Super Kings captain attracted the highest bid in the landmark IPL auction in February when the Chennai franchise owners shelled out a whopping Rs six crore for the Indian ODI and Twenty20 captain.
Dhoni tallied 414 runs at an average of 41.40 in 14 innings and each run that flowed from his blade was worth Rs 1,44,927.
Tournament's top scorer Shaun Marsh, however, was not equally fortunate. Bought for a paltry Rs 12 lakh, the left-hander, son of former Australia opener Geoff Marsh, went on to aggregate 616 runs at a mammoth average of 68, which ironically means every run he scored earned him just Rs 1948, a pittance compared to Dhoni.
In fact, none of the franchise owners showed any interest in the Aussie colt, who was simply overlooked in the first two rounds of bidding before Kings XI Punjab coach Tom Moody roped him in just nine days before the IPL got underway.
Marsh, however, can still draw some solace from the fact that his sterling show in the Twenty20 event at least won him an ODI recall in the Australian team.
Gautam Gambhir (534) trails Marsh in the run-getters' chart with an average of 41.07 and the left-hander proved a good buy for the Delhi Daredevils, who had coughed up Rs 2.9 crore for him.
Personally for Gambhir, each run scored has been worth Rs 54,307 even though his team could not proceed beyond the semifinals.
Sri Lankan old warhorse Sanath Jayasuriya, third member of the 500-plus run club, cost the Mumbai Indians a cool Rs 3.9 crore and though the side could not reach the last four, the left-hander salvaged his personal reputation, aggregating 514 runs from 14 matches.
At the fag end of an illustrious career, each and every run he scored was worth Rs 75,875.
Among the bowlers, Sohail Tanvir has undoubtedly been the best buy by the Rajasthan Royals and the Pakistani with a wrong-footed action grabbed the Purple Cap with his rich tournament haul of 22 wickets at an impressive average of 12.09.
Tanvir was bought for a meagre Rs 40 lakh and the seamer proved he was every rupee worth the deal as he often provided the early breakthrough and then returned to deal those late blows, which most of the rival teams could not recover from.
Each wicket Tanvir scalped was worth Rs 1,81,818 -- besides the fact that he also chipped in with some invaluable runs down the order, like hitting the winning run in last night's thrilling final.
Tanvir is followed by Shane Warne in the highest wicket-takers' list with the spin legend finishing with 19 scalps under his belt.
While calculations would suggest that Warne, who joined the Rajasthan Royals for Rs 1.8 crore, got Rs 9,47,368 for each of his 19 wickets, the Aussie's contribution far exceeds mere numbers.
Warne was the coach and captain rolled into one and he led from the front to galvanise a motley crew of mostly unheralded youngsters into a bunch of champions who defied all odds and pulled the rug from under the feet of their illustrious opponents to walk away with the silverware.
Warne was definitely fortunate to have compatriot Shane Watson, clearly the Most Valuable Player of the tournament, in the ranks and the towering all-rounder scored 472 runs at an average of 47.20, besides grabbing 17 wickets at 22.52 apiece.
No wonder Watson was the obvious choice for the Man of the Series award.
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