Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground

VCA Ground
VCA Ground, Civil Lines, Nagpur
Ground information
Location	Nagpur
Establishment	1929 (First match recorded)
Capacity	40,000
Owner	Vidarbha Cricket Association
Operator	Vidarbha Cricket Association
End names
Jaika End Church End
International information
First Test	3 October 1965:  India v  New Zealand
Last Test	1 March 2006:  India v  England
First ODI	23 January 1985:  India v  England
Last ODI	14 October 2007:  India v  Australia
Only WODI	18 December 1997:  Australia v  England
As of 9 December 2019 Source: Cricinfo

The Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground is a cricket ground located in the city of Nagpur.^[1]

The ground is known as the VCA Ground and belongs to the Central Zone. The first match was played here in October 1969. As of 19 August 2017, it has hosted nine Tests and 14 ODIs.

It has been replaced by a new stadium called Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium as an international cricket stadium. It continues to be used by the Vidarbha and Uttar Pradesh cricket teams.

Sunil Gavaskar scored his only one day century here against New Zealand in the 1987 Reliance World Cup.

In 1995, during the 5th ODI between India and New Zealand, a wall in the East Stand collapsed, killing 9 people and injuring 70 others.^[2]

History

The tenth Test venue in the country, the Vidarbha Cricket Association-managed ground, probably the only international venue where you can walk straight into the ground from the road, has always made headlines for various reasons.

Chetan Sharma takes the first Cricket World Cup hat-trick in history, with the wickets of Ken Rutherford, Ian Smith and Ewen Chatfield in Nagpur. All three were bowled.^[3]

Sunil Gavaskar got his only one-day, and World Cup, century here when India won by a huge margin against New Zealand in their final league encounter of the 1987 Reliance World Cup. This is the second best ground for Sachin Tendulkar when it comes to centuries. Sachin Tendulkar has three here after four in Chepauk.

The pitch was just like any other docile pitch, until the BCCI-appointed pitch committee recommended the re-laying of the wicket in 1999. It took a while for the wicket to assume the true shape that it was designed to.

The unique thing about this wicket is the 30-inch deep double-brick layer (normally there is a 15-inch brick layer) which facilitates extra pace and bounce. This was a factor when Australia conquered the 'final frontier' as they beat India handsomely in the third Test to win the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

The local critics were up-in-arms at how the curator ignored the home team's cause and prepared a fast wicket that helped the opposition fast bowlers. But the curator insisted that he had simply followed the instructions of the pitch panel. Today Nagpur is one of the only grounds to assist genuine fast bowlers in pace and movement and several first-class games in the 2004/05 season ended within three days as the medium-pacers reaped rich rewards.

Records

Test

Batting

• Highest team total: 609/6 dec, by India against Zimbabwe in 2000/01, then 570/7 and 546/9, all by India.
• Lowest team total: 109, by India against New Zealand in 1969/70.
• Highest individual score: 232*, by Andy Flower against India in 2000/01.
• Most runs scored by Sachin Tendulkar (659 runs), Rahul Dravid (423 runs) and Andy Flower (298 runs).

Bowling

• Best bowling in an innings: 7/51, by Maninder Singh against Sri Lanka in 1986/87.
• Leading wicket takers Anil Kumble (20 wickets), Zaheer Khan (12 wickets) and Maninder Singh (10 wickets).

One Day International

Batting

• Highest team total: 350, by India against Sri Lanka in 2005/06, New Zealand 348/3 and India 338/3.
• Lowest team total: 154, by Zimbabwe against Australia in 1995/96.
• Highest individual score: 149, by Shivnarine Chanderpaul against India in 2006/07.
• Most runs scored by Sourav Ganguly (398 runs), Rahul Dravid (392 runs) and Sachin Tendulkar (390 runs).

Bowling

• Best bowling in an innings: 6/29, by Patrick Patterson against India in 1987/88.
• Leading wicket takers were Ravi Shastri (8 wickets), Patrick Patterson (6 wickets) and Abdul Qadir (6 wickets).

List of Centuries

Key

• * denotes that the batsman was not out.
• Inns. denotes the number of the innings in the match.
• Balls denotes the number of balls faced in an innings.
• NR denotes that the number of balls was not recorded.
• Parentheses next to the player's score denotes his century number at Edgbaston.
• The column title Date refers to the date the match started.
• The column title Result refers to the player's team result

Test Centuries

No.	Score	Player	Team	Balls	Inns.	Opposing team	Date	Result
1	131	Mohinder Amarnath	India	301	2	Sri Lanka	27 December 1986	Won[4]
2	153	Dilip Vengsarkar	India	–	2	Sri Lanka	27 December 1986	Won[4]
3	107	Navjot Singh Sidhu	India	231	1	West Indies	1 December 1994	Draw[5]
4	179	Sachin Tendulkar	India	322	1	West Indies	1 December 1994	Draw[5]
5	125*	Jimmy Adams	West Indies	312	2	India	1 December 1994	Draw[5]
6	110	Shiv Sunder Das	India	175	1	Zimbabwe	25 November 2000	Draw[6]
7	162	Rahul Dravid	India	301	1	Zimbabwe	25 November 2000	Draw[6]
8	201*	Sachin Tendulkar	India	281	1	Zimbabwe	25 November 2000	Draw[6]
9	106*	Grant Flower	Zimbabwe	196	2	India	25 November 2000	Draw[6]
10	102	Alistair Campbell	Zimbabwe	186	3	India	25 November 2000	Draw[6]
11	232*	Andy Flower	Zimbabwe	444	3	India	25 November 2000	Draw[6]
12	105	Shiv Sunder Das	India	203	2	Zimbabwe	21 February 2002	Won[7]
13	176	Sachin Tendulkar	India	316	2	Zimbabwe	21 February 2002	Won[7]
14	100*	Sanjay Bangar	India	155	2	Zimbabwe	21 February 2002	Won[7]
15	114	Damien Martyn	Australia	165	1	India	26 October 2004	Won[8]
16	134*	Paul Collingwood	England	252	1	India	1 March 2006	Draw[9]
17	104*	Alastair Cook	England	243	3	India	1 March 2006	Draw[9]
18	100	Wasim Jaffer	India	198	4	England	1 March 2006	Won[9]

One Day Internationals

No.	Score	Player	Team	Balls	Inns.	Opposing team	Date	Result
1	103*	Sunil Gavaskar	India	88	2	New Zealand	31October 1987	Won[10]
2	101*	Ravi Shastri	India	147	1	Sri Lanka	1December 1990	Won[11]
3	104	Aravinda de Silva	Sri Lanka	124	2	India	1December 1990	Lost[11]
4	114	Nathan Astle	New Zealand	128	1	India	26November 1995	Won[12]
5	130*	Saurav Ganguly	India	160	1	Sri Lanka	22March 1999	Won[13]
6	116	Rahul Dravid	India	118	1	Sri Lanka	22March 1999	Won[13]
7	103	Chris Gayle	West Indies	116	2	India	9November 2002	Won[14]
8	149*	Shivnarine Chanderpaul	West Indies	136	2	India	21January 2007	Lost[15]
9	107*	Andrew Symonds	Australia	88	1	India	14October 2007	Won[16]

List of Five Wicket Hauls

Key

Tests

No.	Bowler	Date	Team	Opposing team	Inn	Overs	Runs	Wkts	Econ	Batsmen	Result
1	Srinivas Venkataraghavan	3 October 1969	India	New Zealand	3	30.1	74	6	2.45	Graham Dowling Mark Burgess Glenn Turner Ken Wadsworth Bob Cunis Dayle Hadlee	Lost[17]
2	Hedley Howarth	3 October 1969	New Zealand	India	4	23	34	5	1.47	Ajit Wadekar Rusi Surti Chetan Chauhan Ambar Roy Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi	Won[17]
3	Ravi Shastri †	5 October 1983	India	Pakistan	2	30.4	75	5	2.44	Mohsin Khan Wasim Raja Wasim Bari Tahir Naqqash Azeem Hafeez	Drawn[18]
4	Mohammad Nazir	5 October 1983	Pakistan	India	3	50	72	5	1.44	Anshuman Gaekwad Sunil Gavaskar Dilip Vengsarkar Ravi Shastri Kirti Azad	Drawn[18]
5	Shivlal Yadav	27 December 1986	India	Sri Lanka	1	19.1	76	5	3.96	Asanka Gurusinha Aravinda de Silva Guy de Alwis Arjuna Ranatunga Asoka de Silva	Won[4]
6	Maninder Singh †	27 December 1986	India	Sri Lanka	3	17.4	51	7	2.88	Roy Dias Aravinda de Silva Duleep Mendis Arjuna Ranatunga Ravi Ratnayeke Asoka de Silva Guy de Alwis	Won[4]
7	Carl Hooper	1 December 1994	West Indies	India	1	40	116	5	2.9	Manoj Prabhakar Vinod Kambli Navjot Singh Sidhu Mohammad Azharuddin Sanjay Manjrekar	Draw[5]
8	Venkatapathy Raju	1 December 1994	India	India	2	50	127	5	2.54	Anderson Cummins Brian Lara Keith Arthurton Shivnarine Chanderpaul Junior Murray	Draw[5]
9	Ravindra Pushpakumara	26 November 1997	Sri Lanka	India	1	32	122	5	3.81	Nayan Mongia Sachin Tendulkar Mohammad Azharuddin Sourav Ganguly Abey Kuruvilla	Draw[19]
10	Ray Price	21 February 2002	Zimbabwe	India	2	68	182	5	2.67	Deep Dasgupta Shiv Sunder Das Sourav Ganguly VVS Laxman Sachin Tendulkar	Lost[7]
11	Anil Kumble	21 February 2002	India	Zimbabwe	3	37	63	5	1.7	Alistair Campbell Andy Flower Gavin Rennie Grant Flower Heath Streak	Won[7]
12	Jason Gillespie	26 October 2004	Australia	India	2	22.5	56	5	2.45	Aakash Chopra Sachin Tendulkar Ajit Agarkar Murali Kartik Zaheer Khan	Won[8]
13	Matthew Hoggard	1 March 2006	England	India	2	30.5	57	6	1.84	Virender Sehwag Rahul Dravid Wasim Jaffer VVS Laxman Irfan Pathan S. Sreesanth	Draw[9]

One Day Internationals

No.	Bowler	Date	Team	Opposing team	Inn	Overs	Runs	Wkts	Econ	Batsmen	Result
1	Patrick Patterson	8 December 1987	West Indies	India	2	9.4	29	6	3.00	Arun Lal Anshuman Gaekwad Krishnamachari Srikkanth Kapil Dev Ravi Shastri Kiran More	Won[20]