Chennai and Kolkata continued their dominance in the fourth round of the players' auction in the Indian Premier League in Mumbai on Wednesday.
The India Cements-owned side sobered up a bit and tightened up its purse strings, picking just-retired Kiwi veteran Stephen Flemming for his modest base price of $350,000.
Shah Rukh Khan was in no mood to relent though. He boosted his side's cool quotient and bought Caribbean big-hitter Chris Gayle for $800,000.
Vijay Mallya's Bangalore mounted what looks like a late charge to bag South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis for close to a million. The liquor baron also got experienced pacer Zaheer Khan for a middle-of-the-road $450,000.
But it was Hyderabad which led the charge in round four. It added more firepower to its line-up by landing big hitting duo Herschelle Gibbs and Shahid Afridi. The two selections make the side look extremely skewed at the moment, what with their previous buys being Andrew Symonds and Adam Gilchrist.
Watch this team as it goes all out in round 6, where the specialist non-superstar bowlers will go under the hammer.
Delhi, which had to buy someone pouched Shoaib Malik and Mohammed Asif. It already had Virender Sehwag [bestowed the so-called iconic player status at the eleventh hour] and Daniel Vettori and, along with Jaipur, looks the weakest on paper.
The pink city, which hit pay dirt when it picked Shane Warne in the first round, has not been able to add much to its line-up. It settled for Younis Khan and South African skipper Graeme Smith in round 4 and has a long way to go before it achieves some balance.
Preity Zinta and Ness Wadia, which has the most balanced side, did not do much in this round beyond ensuring that the sober likes of Sangakkara and Jayawardene have some contrasting company in the dressing room after picking Shantakumaran Sreesanth.
Round five was a battle of wicketkeepers. With four teams having superstar 'keepers, the only name worth watching out for was Mark Boucher. He went to Bangalore.
Tamil Nadu's Dinesh Karthik lost out on a chance to play for Chennai. He was the first 'keeper to go under the hammer and Delhi promptly snapped him up for more than double his base price of $200,000.
Chennai, meanwhile, picked national discard Parthiv Patel, who was the fourth gloved one to go up for sale.
Delhi also took A B de Villiers, who was listed as a wicketkeeper, though he will always be remembered for his World Cup innings against Australia and his dismissal to an 80-metre Shane Watson direct throw. Kamran Akmal will join compatriot Younus Khan in Jaipur; Zimbabwe's Tatenda Taibu remained unsold.
