England allrounder Ben Stokes has emerged the biggest of purchases by the halfway mark of bidding at the 2017 IPL player auction in Bangalore, finding his first franchise in Rising Pune Supergiants who forked out Rs 14.5 crore for his services - more than seven times his base price. Stokes was one of seven marquee players with a base price of Rs 2 crore, and within seconds his name rocketed upwards. Mumbai Indians started the bidding for Stokes, and for a good time held off frenzied bidding from Royal Challengers Bangalore, Delhi Daredevils and Sunrises Hyderabad, but a stunning late bid from Pune Supergiants at 13.5 crore changed the tempo. Within a minute, all others backed out and Pune acquired the allrounder for a whopping price tag. Stokes, 25, has played 77 Twenty20 matches in which he has scored 1272 runs at an average of 22.71, with five fifties, and taken 32 wickets at 36.40 apiece, with an economy rate of 8.60. He brings to Supergiants a strike-rate of 134.03, and most recently in India turned in a good showing in the ODI series. After that series, Yuvraj Singh tipped Stokes to "earn millions" at the auction.Source: Times of India