Delhi Diary Day 8 & 9
The flight out of Dharamsala into Delhi was very straightforward, it took about 90 minutes and I cleared Indira Gandhi Airport very quickly as well. There is a metro terminal on the orange line right at arrivals and I was soon headed North on the yellow line to Civil Lines station, a 5 minute walk from the hotel. As I entered the lobby I had an allergic reaction to something in there and my throat closed up and I was coughing a lot. They got me checked in from the room (which was upgraded to a nice suite) and after an antihistamine and a puff on an inhaler I was good again.
I had lunch in the hotel garden terrace and then got laundry sorted and took care of a few bits to get ready to go home. I had a restful afternoon and then headed out in the evening via the metro to the Arun Jaitley Stadium to watch a WPL match between Delhi Capitals and the Gujarat Giants. I had been looking forward to this my whole trip. some of my all time favourite players were featuring and a night time twenty over domestic women’s game is a completely different occasion to a test match. It was the final match of the league competition — Delhi had qualified top and Gujarat were out if contention for the finals. Delhi proceeded to completely stuff Gujarat which meant that the sport of the thing was a bit lacking. I had been looking forward in particular to watching the young English monster hitter Alice Capsey bat (she got a 3 ball duck) and ace Aussie all rounder Ash Gardner do her thing (a scratchy 12(12), and 2 overs for 28 and 0 wickets). Shefali Verma hit an awesome 70 odd off about half as many balls and Delhi chased 130ish in approx 13 overs.
It was a very busy and loud stadium experience with something always going on, lots of music and entertainment and games. There were mascots and cheerleaders and dance competitions. It was another fun evening on the opposite end of the elite cricket spectrum.
With 5 needed and Verma on strike and hitting the ball all over the place I took a video hoping to capture her whacking it out of the stadium for the winning runs and she bunted it to mid-off and got caught.
Sorry Shefali. It was looking touch and go to be able to get the metro back but the Gujarat capitulation was so quick that the game finished early and in time for the last train.
On my last day in Delhi I had breakfast at the Hotel then headed for the Select City Walk mall to go to the IMAX cinema there and watch a movie. I had a look round the mall and bought a rubber chicken for my dog, then got a burger king veggie whopper meal. As soon as you enter the building you could be anywhere in the world.
The movie was enjoyable. It was a modern air conditioned cinema with comfy seats. I was a bit surprised they just stopped it exactly half way through for an intermission but it was a welcome opportunity to get a drink, which in keeping with cinemas everywhere was probably one of the most expensive things I bought in 3 weeks. The same price as foreigner admission to the Red Fort for a day.
One final tuktuk ride back to the metro and then back to the hotel to pack. Early start for the airport the next day and that was the end of my trip to India.
