NEW DELHI: Former Indian cricket team captain MS Dhoni and his Jharkhand cricket teammates had a providential escape when a devastating fire broke out in a hotel where they all were staying, media reports said on Friday.
Dhoni, currently the skipper of Jharkhand cricket team, was in the national capital to play semi-finals of the Vijay Hazare Trophy schedule for today when the incident took place, prompting postponement of the match. The match between Jharkhand and Bengal will now be played on Saturday.
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Reports said the fire broke out at the first floor of the hotel located at Dwarka while Dhoni was on the ninth floor. His other teammates were lodged across seventh to ninth floors.
Subsequently, Dhoni and his teammates were evacuated from the hotel and driven to Palam grounds.
“We were to assemble in the lobby at 7.30am as we usually do before a game, but at 7, I was asked to stay back in the room by Pratyush Singh as there was lot of fire and smoke at the ground floor lobby,” Ishank Jaggi, the Jharkhand batsman, told ESPNcricinfo.
“It spread quite quickly and when we finally got out of our seventh floor rooms, all we could see around us was smoke. It was so thick that we couldn’t even see the far end of the lobby.
“What added to our concern was the fire alarm didn’t go off, so we assumed it to be a small fire accident. But when there was a strong burning smell, we were asked to vacate immediately. The seriousness of it struck us only when we got out. The smoke spread to our rooms as well. That is when we were asked to run down the stairs, added Jaggi”
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