Ranchi to miss its hero on JSCA pitch on Saturday

RANCHI: The city has witnessed many 'firsts' in the last two years as far as cricket is concerned. Two-year-old JSCA International Stadium Complex became an international venue after it hosted the India-England ODI on January 19 last year; the first IPL match was played here on May 12, 2013 and then the Champions League matches in September last year.
However, on Sunday, there will be another first that the Ranchiites would not have thought of coming, at least so soon.
For the first time, homeboy and Jharkhand's favourite son Mahendra Singh Dhoni will not be leading his teammates onto the field at the JSCA stadium as he is rested from the ongoing One-Day International series against Sri Lanka with a hairline crack in the thumb.
For a city where Mahi means almost everything, his absence has certainly made people lose interest in the match. The series being dead and buried hasn't helped them either.
With only 12,000 tickets sold by Saturday evening and close to 5,000 distributed among the affiliated units and JSCA members, more than half of the stands will remain empty in the around 40000-capacity stadium.
There was no queue in front of the ticket counters.
The Jharkhand State Cricket Association (JSCA) officials also said the response is too low as the result of the match doesn't have any impact on the series and above all Dhoni is not there.
"My cousins are here on a holiday and requested me to come with them to watch the match as they haven't seen a match here so far. Otherwise, I would not have wasted money watching a dead match. Mahi is also not there, what's the point spending Rs 1000/- per ticket," said Rajesh Singh from Ratu Road.
Durgesh Jha from Patel Chowk area, said: "I will be watching as it is on a Sunday and will hope that someone plays a big inning like the one Rohit Sharma played in Kolkata. Let's see what luck has in its store for me!" However, it is sure that JSCA will feel itself lucky if they see the stands are more than half full on Sunday.