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The Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, also known as the Mirpur Stadium, is a sports ground in Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh. The ground has hosted 177 international cricket matches since 2006.[1][2] On 17 January 2018 during the 2017–18 Bangladesh Tri-Nation Series, it became the sixth and the fastest to host 100 ODIs.[3][4][5] It is named after A. K. Fazlul Huq, the first Prime Minister of Bengal, who was accorded the title Sher-e-Bangla ("The Tiger of Bengal").[6][7] The venue was taken over by the Bangladesh Cricket Board in 2004, replacing the Bangabandhu National Stadium as the home of both the men's and women's national teams.[8] The first international match on the ground, a One Day International (ODI), was played between Bangladesh and Zimbabwe in 2006, with the first Test match played the following year between Bangladesh and India in 2000.[9] The first Twenty20 International (T20I) match on the ground was played between Bangladesh and West Indies in 2011.[10] Women's One Day International and Twenty20 International cricket have also been played on the ground.[11][12]
In cricket, a century is a score of 100 or more runs in a single innings by a batter.[13] A century is regarded as a landmark score for batters and a player's number of centuries is generally recorded in their career statistics.[14]
The first batsman to score a century in Test cricket at Mirpur was Dinesh Karthik of India against Bangladesh during the ground's debut Test match on 25 May 2007.[15] Gautam Gambhir was the first batsman to score a century in ODI cricket on this ground, scoring 101 runs off 113 balls.[16] Mohammad Ashraful was the first Bangladeshi batsman to score a century at the ground, scoring 101 off 193 balls against Sri Lanka in December 2008. Tamim Iqbal was the first batsman among Bangladeshis to score a century in an ODI match on this ground, scoring 129 runs off 136 balls against Ireland on 22 March 2008, being the youngest player to do so on this ground.[17] Iqbal has scored a total of seven international centuries on this ground, two in Tests and five in ODIs - the most by any player on this ground.[18] The only centurion in this ground in T20Is is Ahmed Shehzad, who scored 111 runs off just 62 balls against Bangladesh in March 2014.[19] Azhar Ali of Pakistan is the highest individual run scorer in Tests on this ground, scoring 226 runs off 428 balls against Bangladesh on 6 May 2015.[20] Shane Watson's 185 runs off just 96 balls against Bangladesh in 2011 is the highest individual score by a batsman on this ground in ODI.
In the third ODI between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in May 2021, Kusal Perera of Sri Lanka scored 120 runs,[21] which was the 50th One Day International century at this venue.[22] On 6 April 2023, Loran Tucker scored 108 runs against Bangladesh on his Test debut, becoming the first batsman to score a century on Test debut in this ground.[23]
During the one-off Test between Bangladesh and Afghanistan in June 2023, Najmul Hossain Shanto's century in the first innings was the 100th century at this venue combining all three international formats.[24]
