Delhi Daredevils, Rajasthan Royals, stale popcorn and overpriced Coke

We went to see the Delhi Daredevils game yesterday at Firoz Shah Kotla stadium. I half dreaded going to the game, fearing unruly crowds and poor management.

The crowds were definitely there, however for the first time I was glad that the cops were there too. Delhi Police and CRPF were doing a good job of managing the crowd and were surprisingly pleasant, not something you associate with our chaps in khaki.

People queued up while going through the security frisking and one could hear announcements reassuring them that the game would start in a while and they should go inside the stadium in an orderly fashion.

There was even a first aid counter being manned  by young interns from Fortis and it was reassuring to see the arrangements.

We were in the North east section on the third floor , unfortunately by the time we reached, most of the good seats were taken and we got ones that were behind a pillar which obscured the view. The stadium guys should take out seats just behind the pillar and create an aisle so that vendors could move between the sections.

There were arrangements for refreshments and there was a soft drink counter, the guy behind the counter was selling soft drinks for Rs. 50 a glass instead of the Rs. 40 price which was displayed on his T-shirt. I got my drinks for Rs. 40 each after asking him to go ahead and call his supervisor so that I too could share how he was ripping off customers. On top of that, the guy was short pouring the drinks, maybe pocketing the money for the extra glasses.

The seats had bird droppings  on them and the blue daredevils pennants came in handy for covering the seats before sitting.

It was an average game till the last over in which the game could have gone either way. It was truly a nail biting finish.

The way out from gate no. 15 goes through a narrow lane with houses on one side, it is  definitely a stampede hazard. With the crowd so thick that you can walk only a quarter of a pace at a time, there is a steep step from the stadium to the road and the road has two or three speed bumps.

On the way out Delhi Police was hard at work managing the exiting crowds. Got to say it, thank you guys in khakhi, yesterday, you did a great job.