Christian, a 27-year-old seam bowler who is also handy with the bat, was picked by Deccan Chargers for $900,000 after fierce bidding from Delhi Daredevils and the new Kochi franchise.

The Aussie, who has played only three Twenty20 internationals, went for 18 times his base price of $50,000.

Indian pace bowlers Umesh Yadav (Delhi, $750,000), Munaf Patel (Mumbai Indians, $700,000), Lakshmipathi Balaji (Kolkata, $500,000) and Vinay Kumar (Kochi, $475,000) were among the other top purchases as the franchises were forced to tighten their strings because of a cap of $9 million per team.

The bowlers went for a fraction of the amount that batsmen were bid for, with India opener Gautam Gambhir having been bought by the Kolkata Knight Riders for $2.4 million on the opening day of the auction Saturday.

Among those not finding any takers on Sunday were veteran Sri Lankan all-rounder Sanath Jayasuriya, South African paceman Makhaya Ntini and England seamer Ryan Sidebottom.

They join former India skipper Sourav Ganguly, West Indians Brian Lara and Chris Gayle and South African wicketkeeper Mark Boucher in a list of prominent players who have not been bid for.

All those names are likely to come up again toward the end of the auction.

Apart from Gambhir, big-hitting all-rounder Yusuf Pathan (Kolkata, $2.1 million), Robin Uthappa (Pune, $2.1 million) and Rohit Sharma (Mumbai Indians, $2 million) were the other expensive buys on the first day.

The highest bids before this weekend's auction, were the $1.55 million each for England players Kevin Pietersen (Bangalore Royal Challengers) and Andrew Flintoff (Chennai Super Kings) during the second edition, in 2009.

Ten franchises are participating in the two-day bidding, including Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab - who were banished by the IPL for breaching ownership regulations but readmitted for the auction following a court order.

Twelve players, including India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Chennai Super Kings), Sachin Tendulkar (Mumbai Indians) and Shane Warne (Rajasthan Royals), were retained by their original franchises.

The 2011 IPL season will be held from April 8-May 22.