Australia allrounder Shane Watson was the costliest buy at the Indian Premier League auctions Saturday as he was picked up for $1.4 million by Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Watson went for five times his base price and will join the likes of Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and Chris Gayle who have been retained by Bangalore.

Watson, who struck an unbeaten 124 against India in a recent T20 game, was bid for aggressively in the opening session which saw Sunrisers Hyderabad buy allrounder Yuvraj Singh for just over one million dollars and Rising Pune Supergiants take England's Kevin Pietersen for $515,000.

Watson earlier played for Rajasthan Royals, which is suspended for two years along with Chennai Super Kings after their officials were found to be in touch with illegal bookmakers during the 2013 season.

South African allrounder Chris Morris went for a surprisingly high price of just over a million dollars to Delhi Daredevils which already has his compatriots Jean-Paul Duminy and Quinton de Kock.

Hyderabad bought pace bowler Ashish Nehra for $810,000 to add to batsmen like Shikhar Dhawan, Australian David Warner and New Zealand's Kane Williamson, and now also Yuvraj.

Dale Steyn of South Africa and West Indian Dwayne Smith were both bought by Gujarat Lions for identical sums of $339,000 while pace bowler Ishant Sharma was taken by Pune for $560,000.

A total of 351 players featured in Saturday's auction and they will join players either retained by franchises or players from Chennai and Rajasthan picked by Pune and Gujarat in a draft in December.