M.Chinnaswamy Stadium (Bengaluru) Pitch Report, Results & Stats

Chinnaswamy Stadium – Bengaluru

The M Chinnaswamy Stadium is one of the most iconic stadiums in the country which has a rich history of cricket and also houses some of the most passionate fans of the game. The stadium is situated in Bangalore, which serves as the capital of India’s southern state of Karnataka. The stadium is owned by the government of Karnataka and it has been leased out to the state’s cricket body with the aim of development of the sport in the state. Earlier, the stadium was, in fact, known as the Karnataka State Cricket Association before its name was changed. Currently, apart from being the home of Karnataka, it also serves as the home stadium of the Bangalore side of the Indian T20 League. Although the team hasn’t won the coveted title in the 15 years of the league’s existence, it still enjoys one of the staunchest fan bases ever who turn up frequently.

The Nature of the Pitch
The pitch at Chinnaswamy has always been favorable to the batters except for a few rare instances. The short boundaries make it even more attractive for the batter to go for bigger shots, as they know that they will get full value for those shots. The bounce is often true on the Bangalore surface and batters can go through with their shots. Teams that win the toss generally prefer to field first and chase whatever score the opposition puts up. For the last five years or so, teams batting first have on average scored in excess of 180 at a run rate of 9 per over. However, the average winning first innings score on the ground has been in excess of 190. Wickets do tend to fall to pacers but they also end up with a higher economy than spinners, who, on the other hand don’t get as many wickets on this ground as pacers.

History
The construction of the stadium began in 1969-70 and got to host its first international fixture in the winter of 1974 when the visiting West Indies side took on the hosts in a stadium that was still not fully built. The match is special because it saw two West Indian greats Gordon Greenidge and Sir Vivian Richards make their Test debuts. The stadium hosted its first ODI in 1982 when India played Sri Lanka. The stadium underwent renovation before the 1996 World Cup and went on to host an India-Pakistan quarter final encounter under floodlights for the first time which proved to be a thrilling contest won by India. In the 2011 World Cup, it was the only venue where India played two matches. The encounter against England proved to be a thrilling tie. The name of the stadium was changed from KSCA Stadium to M Chinnaswamy Stadium to honor former KSCA and BCCI President Mangalam Chinnaswamy.

General Information about the Stadium
The stadium is capable of having crowds of close to 50,000. The two bowling ends in the stadium are called Pavilion End and BEML end. To honour local hero Rahul Dravid’s rare feat of getting to 10,000 runs in both Test and ODI formats,, a wall with 10,000 bricks was built and was inaugurated by his teammate Sachin Tendulkar in 2008. The wall sports a large metal cut-out of Dravid playing a drive through covers. As part of the state cricket association’s Go Green initiative, it also became the first cricket stadium in the world to use solar panels to generate a bulk of the electricity needed to run the stadium in 2015.

Trivia
The highest score in the league’s history was scored on this ground when playing against Pune, Bangalore scored 263/5 in 2013.
The above match also saw the highest T20 score ever recorded as Chris Gayle of Bangalore smashed 175* in just 66 deliveries.
The ground also saw Indian batter Rohit Sharma score the first of his three double hundreds in ODIs as he racked up 209 against Australia in 2013.
The Indian Test team has lost some memorable contests on this ground – against Australia in 1998 and 2004, against South Africa in 2000 and against Pakistan in 2005.
The fastest hundred hit in an ODI World Cup also came on this venue when Kevin O’Brien ran amok against England in the 2011 World Cup and scored a 50 ball century to help Ireland pull off an improbable victory chasing more than 300 runs.