---
type: Video
title: "Flying to India for the Cricket World Cup Final 🇮🇳"
description: Harry flies to Ahmedabad for the 2023 World Cup final with no hotel booked, haggles his way through four of them, and watches India lose to Australia in a stadium of 100,000 people.
tags: [india, ahmedabad, gujarat, cricket, sport, hotels, haggling]
timestamp: 2026-08-05T12:00:00Z
resource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQaykEs5goo
video_id: EQaykEs5goo
upload_date: 2023-11-20
duration: 2059
---

# Flying to India for the Cricket World Cup Final 🇮🇳

Harry flies to [Ahmedabad](/places/ahmedabad.md) in Gujarat for the 2023
Cricket World Cup final — India against Australia — having bought the tickets
the day before and booked nowhere to stay. Most of the first half is the
consequence: four hotels, prices inflated several times over by the match, and
a negotiation he wins partly by arguing that Hinduism requires treating a guest
as a god.

The rest is the occasion. A hundred thousand people, almost all of them in
blue, a fighter jet flypast, and a crowd that cheers for Virat Kohli as though
the other ten players aren't on the field. [India](/countries/india.md) post
240, Australia chase it comfortably, and the ground empties before the end.

## Key moments

- [00:00] No hotel. The tickets were bought the day before.
- [00:32] A journalist on the flight explains security will be unusually tight
  because the prime minister is attending — and that his own press approval may
  not cover the final.
- [01:05] The last-minute flight cost about £115.
- [01:40] The entire plane is going to the cricket. It leaves five hours late,
  apparently to make way for charter flights.
- [02:49] A tuk-tuk opens at 900. Harry counters at 400 having checked the ride
  app at 300, and gets it.
- [04:34] He drives the tuk-tuk himself, and stalls it.
- [06:16] A man rides up alongside in traffic to say he watches the videos.
- [07:21] The Hyatt is quoted at around 3,000 a night, so they keep walking.
- [07:56] A man asks for his autograph and claims to be playing in the final,
  friends with Kohli, and friends with Modi.
- [10:06] Hotel two: 5,750, against a normal rate of 3,000.
- [10:39] Hotel three: fully booked.
- [11:16] Hotel four opens at 10,000 for two nights — and Harry's negotiating
  line is that in Hinduism you treat the guest as a god, so treat him
  accordingly.
- [11:52] Settled at 7,000, plus a 1,000-rupee side bet on the result which the
  owner wins.
- [13:05] The room, at roughly $80–100, which he judges purely a function of
  supply and demand rather than value.
- [14:11] The crush outside the ground, which he compares to a video game.
- [14:41] A fake India shirt at 200 rupees against 1,000 for the official one,
  and a flag at 200. About three dollars all in.
- [17:02] The crowd outside, including a man who has invented the job of
  face-painter for the day.
- [18:37] Heavy security, and the teams arriving.
- [19:10] Australian fans, entirely unbothered and saying so.
- [22:30] Harry interviews fans while claiming to work for the BBC, which nobody
  questions.
- [24:43] Inside. Enormous, hot, and not exclusively Indian — South African,
  Dutch and English fans in the stands.
- [25:44] Capacity, per the man next to him, 110,000. Harry guesses nearer
  130,000.
- [26:45] The crowd cheers Kohli specifically, which he says is unlike anything
  he's seen for a single player.
- [27:16] Australia win the toss and bowl.
- [27:53] A fighter jet flypast that catches him completely off guard.
- [30:21] A stadium samosa, which he says he knows a good samosa and this isn't
  one.
- [31:33] India post 240 and Australia start well.
- [32:51] The noise goes out of the ground and people begin leaving.
- [33:25] Australia win.

## Extracted pages

- Place: [Ahmedabad](/places/ahmedabad.md)
- Country: [India](/countries/india.md)
- Tips: [Haggle with a reference price](/tips/haggle-with-a-reference-price.md)