England allrounder Ben Stokes has emerged the biggest of purchases by the halfway mark of bidding at the 2017 IPL 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, 25, has played 77 Twenty20 matches in which he has scored 1272 runs at an average of 22.71.