New Delhi, Oct. 29: Delhi is ecstatic at its first day-night ODI and tickets for the third India-Australia one-dayer on Saturday are selling like hot cakes. The Ferozeshah Kotla was scheduled to host another tie under lights — the fifth and final India-Sri Lanka ODI — on December 27, which will now be a ‘day’ match.

The Delhi & Districts Cricket Association has communicated its inability to organise a day-night match in the last week of December, to the BCCI.

"We had told the BCCI that we’ll find it hard to host a day-night fixture in the peak of winter. The dew was causing major problems for us during the Champions League T20 and it’ll be the case for the ODI on Saturday as well," DDCA curator Vijay Bahadur Mishra told this newspaper on Thursday.

"It is good that the next ODI is a day match because it is very hard to hold a day-night fixture in northern Indian venues," he added.

DDCA vice-president Chetan Chauhan confirmed the change saying they had received approval from BCCI. "We have received confirmation from the BCCI and the India-Sri Lanka match will not be played under lights," Chauhan said.

Mishra, meanwhile, also said that the DDCA did not wish to hold Champions League matches at Kotla. The newly relaid wicket here came in for criticism during the tournament because of its slow and low nature.

"We had said that we are not fully prepared to host Champions League matches. If we had got those two or three weeks, we could have prepared a very good wicket for the India-Australia tie," he said.

The DDCA remains confident that Saturday’s third ODI will be an exciting affair for the fans.

"The first two matches have been very close and after India’s big win last night there a buzz around this match.

"The match might not be a high-scoring affair like the last two, but smaller totals have produced some thrilling finishes as we saw in the Champions League," Chauhan said.