Sachin Baby (Royal Challengers Bangalore) – INR 10 lakh
Former Rajasthan Royals (in IPL) batsman and current Kerala (in domestic cricket) batsman 27-years old Sachin Baby was bought by Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) for INR 10 lakh from IPL Auction 2016. Though he played 11 matches in IPL 2016, but he get hardly chances to show his capability. With limited chances, Sachin performed well in IPL 2016 as he scored 119 runs with the average of 29.75 and 150.63 strike-rate after getting chances to bat in only 6 innings in his 11 matches.
Sachin Baby’s best innings in IPL 2016 was against Kings XI Punjab at Mohali where he became a saviour of his team along with AB de Villiers. He came to bat at no.5 position in the match when his team was struggling at 67/3 and put a great partnership of 88 runs with AB de Villiers (64 runs) for the 4th wicket. Sachin carried on his innings till the end of the innings as he get run out at very last ball of team’s innings after scoring 33 of 29 balls. With that valuable supporting innings, RCB put 175 runs on the board and won the match by just 1 run.
In the very next match against Mumbai Indians (MI) at Bangalore, Sachin Baby played once again a saviour innings for RCB. When RCB was struggling against MI bowlers as RCB was 98/4 in 15.3 overs, Sachin came to bat at no.6 position and played unbeaten 25 runs knock off 13 balls with 2 sixes and 2 fours. Sachin put an unbeaten 53 runs partnership with KL Rahul (68*) and took the RCB scorecard at 151/4, which was a respectable score in T20 cricket. However, RCB lost that match at the end.
With very limited chances, Sachin Baby showed his capability very well. Apart from these, Sachin also took 2 wickets in IPL 2016.