After our first match of the WPL, we decided to take a more chilled day, walking the streets and taking in the sounds, sights, smells of India. Plus I was exhausted and required a very long nanna nap.
Dinner was had onto of our hotel, as the staff were very persistent in wanting us to eat there. So we obliged and enjoyed our meal whilst watching the game on TV.
Our second match was watching UP Warriorz vs Delhi Capitals. Lisa Sthalekar, who is a mentor for the UP side organised us tickets and transport to and from the game….no uber driver for us this time. Plus they kitted us out in shirts.
As we got to the hotel, we witnessed the team leaving for the game. The entire hotel staff created a guard of honour cheering. What a fantastic way to send-off to their team. They don’t do things by halves here in India, everything is just scaled up.
Since we arrived earlier than our first night, we took in the pre-match entertainment and watched closely as the players warmed up and the ground staff got the pitch ready.
Both Russian and I were amazed about the skill and power shown by Indian domestic players that we had never even heard of. The match was literally a batting masterclass with Kiran Navgire scoring a powerful 50 which was matched by the West Indian Chinelle Henry at the end of the innings.
For DC they matched the opening partnership of UP with Shafali Verma just hitting boundaries, however for me it was Meg Lannings innings. Then Annabelle Sutherland showing the maturity to get the team over the line. A few drop catches cost UP, but all in all I felt privileged to be there in person because I wouldn’t have fully appreciated their skill and control if I had been watching on TV.
Our final day in Vadodara was spent checking the sights and the local food. My business partner, Lisa S had organised a car and brought along some of her team, Tanuja (a wealth of knowledge when it comes to the history of India and all the deities) who is also the S&C for the team.
Plus we had the privileged to walk around the Lukshmi Vilas Palace and their museum with the one of the openers, Vrinda Dinesh. She found Russian extremely funny, and Russian capitalised on running through her old playbook of jokes.
Walking through the Palace where the Maharaja still lives, the opulence was evident wherever you looked. However what really tickled our fancy was when we saw a young lady taking photos or videos of her doing her moves.
That inspired us to follow suit, in our own unique way. However our greatest move was when we convinced Vrinda to join in and she taught us the Shah Rukh Khan move. Watch this space as I feel it may come out a few more times.
Time for lunch where we headed to a well known restaurant and had a Gujarati thali. It is all you can eat and fully vegetarian. I have never seen Russian eat so much and she was in heaven.
To finish off the day we travelled to Bengaluru (Bangalore) with the UP team and are staying at the British-built ITC Windsor Hotel.
The hotel is absolute luxury, fixtures and fittings, marble floors, grand ball rooms, and reading rooms. Even has two bars, the Dublin and Club Bar, which we all tested before the beds. Boy that first sip of beer was complete heaven.
I am just loving this tour. Stay tuned.
