Bengaluru, Feb 16 (IANS): Indian left-hander Yuvraj Singh was bought by the Delhi Daredevils for a whopping Rs.16 crore. But in a big surprise, there were no takers for South African opener Hashim Amla after the first round of bidding for marquee players in the IPL auction here Monday.

The Indian Premier League (IPL) auction ahead of the eighth season got under way here Monday.

A bidding war between Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and the Daredevils saw Yuvraj's price sky-rocket.

Finally, it was the Delhi franchise that went for the jugular and bid Rs.16 crore for the batsman, who was left out of the India squad for the World Cup.

Incidentally, RCB had let go of Yuvraj, the most expensive buy of the last IPL auction, after buying him for Rs.14 crore last time around.

Delhi Daredevils also snapped up Sri Lankan ODI captain Angelo Mathews for Rs.7.50 crore.

Former Chennai Super Kings (CSK) opener Murali Vijay with a base price of Rs.50 lakh was bought by Kings XI Punjab for Rs.3 crore.

Earlier, Amla, with a base price of Rs.200 lakh, was the first player to go under the hammer but remained unsold.

Amla, who is currently on national duty with South Africa in the World Cup, averages an incredible 55.93 in 108 One-Day Internationals (ODI) played.

He has scored 19 hundreds and 27 fifties with a highest score of 153 out. He also has 23 Test centuries to his name and averages 52.78 in the longest format of the game.

He has played 26 Twenty20 internationals, scoring 600 runs at an average of 25.

Amla, however, will be presented again later.