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IPL 2024 is officially done and dusted. The tournament featured many close games, but it ended with a lopsided final between Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad. Mitchell Starc's brilliance in the powerplay helped the Knight Riders beat the Sunrisers by eight wickets.
One of the major reasons why the Kolkata Knight Riders achieved so much success was because they backed the players they put their money on at the auction table. For example, Mitchell Starc, who earned a ₹24.75 crore deal from the Knight Riders, failed to perform well in the initial games. Still, KKR backed him and he helped them win the trophy eventually.
However, not all expensive signings received the same backing from their respective team's backroom staff. Here's a list of three players who earned more than ₹3 crore for just playing a single game in IPL 2024.
#1 Jhye Richardson - ₹5 crore for 1 match in IPL 2024
Before the 2024 auction, Jhye Richardson's last IPL appearance came in the 2021 season for the Punjab Kings. He bagged three wickets in three games for the Kings that season.
Despite his lack of IPL experience, Delhi Capitals (DC) showed enormous interest in him at the auction and shelled out ₹5 crore to acquire his services. DC already had some quality pacers like Anrich Nortje, Ishant Sharma, Khaleel Ahmed, and Mukesh Kumar in the squad.
Hence, Richardson did not get enough chances to play. He only got one game against Mumbai Indians, where he returned with figures of 0/40 in an afternoon match at the Wankhede Stadium.
#2 Umran Malik - ₹4 crore for 1 over in IPL 2024
Umran Malik was among the three players retained by Sunrisers Hyderabad before the IPL 2022 Mega Auction. He justified the team owners' decision to invest ₹4 crore in him as he won the Emerging Player of the Season award in IPL 2022.
However, after that, he was quite inconsistent with the ball in 2023. This year, the team management gave him just a solitary game, which was against Mumbai Indians at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium. Malik bowled one over and returned with figures of 0/15.
He bowled six legal balls and got ₹4 crore, meaning he made ₹66.67 lakh for each delivery he sent out in the orange jersey this year.
#3 Josh Little - ₹4.4 crore for 1 match in IPL 2024
Another pacer to feature on the list is Josh Little. The left-arm fast bowler was quite impressive for Gujarat Titans (GT) last season. Hence, GT retained him for ₹4.4 crore. With Mohammed Shami injured, Little was expected to play a big role for the Titans this season.
However, GT preferred Spencer Johnson over Little. The Irish pacer got a solitary opportunity to play, which was against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). He scalped four wickets in that game. Little bowled his career's best IPL spell (4/45) against RCB.
Still, he got dropped for the next match because GT wanted to bring in Matthew Wade as their wicketkeeper in place of Wriddhiman Saha.
