IPL 3 : RCB beat Kings Eleven Punjab by 8 wickets

Royal Challengers Bangalore beat Kings XI Punjab by eight wickets in an Indian Premier League match at M Chinnaswamy Stadium at Bangalore on Tuesday.

Royal Challengers reached the victory target of 204 runs with seven balls to spare to log their first points in the tournament.

Robin Uthappa's 19-ball fifty and Kallis' unbeaten 84* help Royal Challengers to reach in target.

Brief score:

Kings XI Punjab: 203 for 3 in 20 overs (Ravi Bopara 77, Manvinder Bisla 75, Mahela Jayawardene 26 not out; Dale Steyn 1/36).

Royal Challengers Bangalore: 204 for 2 in 18.5 overs (Jacques Kallis not out 89, Robin Uthappa 51).

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Three IPL Teams To Gain From IPL 3 auction

The newly opened Trident at the Bandra-Kurla Complex played host to the third round of player auctions for the Indian Premier League.

The eight franchisees were given a fresh purse of $750,000 each to select one or two players from among the 51 for auction. This was in sharp contrast to IPL 2 where each had $2 million to pick up two players. All in all, estimates are that over Rs 150 crore was spent on the deals.

West Indian all-rounder Kieron Pollard and New Zealand's Shane Bond bagged the highest bids when they hit the upper limit of $750,000.

Sources say Mumbai Indians bought Pollard for $2.75 million while Kolkata Knight Riders got Bond into their team for $1.3 million. Both players will pocket $750,000 each, with the rest going to the IPL kitty. A tie-breaker was used twice during the auction for Pollard and Bond.

Kemar Roach, another West Indian player, was secured by Deccan Chargers Hyderabad for $720,000 while South African Wayne Parnel was snapped up by Delhi Daredevils for $610,000. Mohammed Kaif, who formerly played for Rajasthan Royals, went to Kings XI Punjab for $250,000 in the second round of bidding.

Royal Challengers Bangalore bought Eoin Morgan of England for $220,000 while veteran Australian cricketer Damien Martyn was picked up by Rajasthan Royals for his base price of $100,000. South African Yousuf Abdullah and Australian Adam Voges were bought by Kings XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals for their base price of $50,000 each.

The fairly big pool of players coupled with fewer slots to fill up gave franchisees the opportunity to spend cautiously.

Preity Zinta's Kings XI Punjab spent $300,000 while Mr Vijay Mallya's Bangalore Royal Challengers shelled out $220,000.

Shilpa Shetty's Rajasthan Royals spent just $150,000. India Cement-owned Chennai Super Kings ended up being the least spender, putting in just $100,000.

No takers for Pak players.

Team owners did not bid for Pakistan's cricketers since there was a lot of uncertainty on their availability.

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