Australia's Shane Watson attracted a top bid of $1.4 million and will join the Bangalore franchise for the next edition of the Indian Premier League Twenty20 tournament, while former England batsman Kevin Pietersen was bought by newcomers Pune. All-rounder Watson was in high demand in Saturday's auction for the cash-rich tournament, the ninth edition of which will be played from April 9 to May 29.

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"Incredibly excited to join such a great franchise. Looking forward to joining up with my new team mates in April," the 34-year-old said on Twitter.Watson will join a Bangalore team boasting power-hitters Chris Gayle, AB de Villliers and Virat Kohli as well as Australia fast bowler Mitchell Starc. Aaron Finch, Australia's captain in the shortest format, went unsold in the first round but was picked up by Rajkot at his base price of 10 million rupees ($147,000) after being invited back in the auction. In-form New Zealand opening batsman Martin Guptill was also unsold in the first round of auction for marquee players. South Africa fast bowler Chris Morris, valued at 5 million rupees, fetched 70 million from Delhi after three franchises showed interest in him. Delhi won another bidding war for West Indies all-rounder Carlos Brathwaite for 42 million and England wicketkeeper batsman Jos Buttler went to Mumbai for 38 million.Pune, to be led by India's limited-overs captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and coached by former New Zealand skipper Stephen Fleming, outbid fellow newcomers Rajkot to land Pietersen for 35 million rupees.Pune and Rajkot were unveiled as the new teams in the Twenty20 competition, replacing Chennai and Rajasthan who were suspended for two years for their role in an illegal betting scandal.All-rounder Pawan Negi, who was named in India's World Twenty20 squad on Friday, attracted the highest bid among Indians and was bought by Delhi for 85 million rupees.India all-rounder Yuvraj Singh, who fetched 160 million rupees at last year's auction, will play for the Hyderabad franchise after being bought for 70 million.

Following is the list of players who were sold in the IPL auction: 

Rising Pune Supergiants

Kevin Pietersen sold for Rs 3.5 crores

Ishant Sharma sold for Rs 3.8 crores 

Irfan Pathan sold for Rs 1 crore Mitchell Marsh sold for Rs 4.8 crores RP Singh sold for Rs 30 lakhs Ankit Sharma sold for Rs 10 lakhs Rajat Bhatia sold for Rs 60 lakh Ishwar Pandey sold for Rs 20 lakh M Ashwin sold for Rs 4.5 crore Ankush Bains sold for Rs 10 lakh Peter Handscomb sold for Rs 30 lakh Thisara Perera sold for Rs 1 crore Baba Aparajith sold for Rs 10 lakh Deepak Chahar sold for Rs 10 lakh Ashok Dinda sold for Rs 50 lakh Scott Boland sold for Rs 50 lakh Adam Zampa sold for Rs 30 lakh Jaskaran Singh sold for Rs 10 lakh 

Gujarat Lions

Dwayne Smith sold for Rs 2.3 crore Dale Steyn sold for Rs 2.3 crore Dinesh Karthik sold for Rs 2.3 crore Dhawal Kulkarni sold for Rs 2 crore Praveen Kumar sold for Rs 3.5 crore Paras Dogra sold for Rs 10 lakhs Ishan Kishan sold for Rs 35 lakhs Eklavya Dwivedi sold for Rs 1 crore Pradeep Sangwan sold for Rs 20 lakhs Pravin Tambe sold for Rs 20 lakhs Shivil Kaushik sold for Rs 10 lakhs Sarabjit Ladda sold for Rs 10 lakhs Aaron Finch sold for Rs 1 crore Umang Sharma sold for Rs 10 lakhs Andrew Tye sold for Rs 50 lakh Shadab Jakati sold for Rs 20 lakh Akshdeep Nath sold for Rs 10 lakh Jaydev Shah sold for Rs 20 lakh Amit Mishra sold for Rs 10 lakh.

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Shane Watson sold for Rs 9.5 crore Stuart Binny sold for Rs 2 crore Travis Head sold for Rs 50 lakhs Sachin Baby sold for Rs 10 lakhs Iqbal Abdulla sold for Rs 10 lakhs Praveen Dubey sold for Rs 35 lakhs Akshay Karnewar sold for Rs 10 lakhs Kane Richardson sold for Rs 2 crore Samuel Badree sold for Rs 50 lakhs Vikramjeet Malik sold for Rs 20 lakhs Vikas Tokas sold for Rs 10 lakhs  

Sunrisers Hyderabad

Ashish Nehra sold for Rs 5.5 crore 

Yuvraj Singh sold for Rs 7 crore Mustafizur Rahman sold for Rs 1.4 crore Barinder Sran sold for Rs 1.2 crore Abhimanyu Mithun sold for Rs 30 lakhs Aditya Tare sold for Rs 1.2 crore Deepak Hooda sold for Rs 4.2 crore T Suman sold for Rs 10 lakhs Ben Cutting sold for Rs 50 lakhs Vijay Shankar sold for Rs 35 lakhs

Delhi Daredevils

Pawan Negi sold for Rs 8.5 crore Sanju Samson sold for Rs 4.2 crore Chris Morris sold for Rs 7 crore Carlos Brathwaite sold for Rs 4.2 crore Karun Nair sold for Rs 4 crore Rishabh Pant sold for Rs 1.9 crore Sam Billings sold for Rs 30 lakhsKhaleel Ahmed sold for Rs 10 lakhs Pratyush Singh sold for Rs 10 lakhs Joel Paris sold for Rs 30 lakhsAkhil Herwadkar sold for Rs 10 lakhs Chama Milind sold for Rs 10 lakhs Mahipal Lomror sold for Rs 10 lakhs Pawan Suyal sold for Rs 10 lakhs 

Mumbai Indians

Jos Buttler sold for Rs 3.8 crore Tim Southee sold for Rs 2.5 crore Nathu Singh sold for Rs 3.2 crore Jitesh Sharma sold for Rs 10 lakhs Kishore Kamath sold for Rs 1.4 crore Krunal Pandya sold for Rs 2 croreDeepak Punia sold for Rs 10 lakhs

Kolkata Knight RidersColin Munro sold for Rs 30 lakhs John Hastings sold for Rs 1.3 crore Jaydev Unadkat sold for Rs 1.6 crore Ankit Rajpoot sold for Rs 1.5 crore Jason Holder sold for Rs 70 lakhs R Sathish sold for Rs 20 lakhs Manan Sharma sold for Rs 10 lakhs 

Kings XI PunjabMohit Sharma sold for Rs 6.5 crore Marcus Stoinis sold for Rs 55 lakhs Kyle Abbott sold for Rs 2.1 crore KC Cariappa sold for Rs 80 lakh Armaan Jaffer sold for Rs 10 lakhs Pardeep Sahu sold for Rs 10 lakhs Swapnil Singh sold for Rs 10 lakhs Farhaan Behardien sold for Rs 30 lakhs.