M. A. Chidambaram Stadium

**M. A. Chidambaram Stadium** is a cricket stadium in Chennai, India. The stadium, most commonly known as **Chepauk**, was established in 1916 and it is the oldest continuously used cricket stadium in the country. Its alternative name is after M. A. Chidambaram, former President of BCCI and the stadium was formerly known as **Madras Cricket Club Ground**. It is the home ground of the Tamil Nadu cricket team and the Indian Premier League team Chennai Super Kings. Chepauk hosted its first Test match on 10 February 1934, the first ever Ranji Trophy match in 1936 and Indian cricket team's first ever test victory in 1952 against England. The 1986 India-Australia match held at Chepauk was only the second ever Tied Test in the history of the game. As of 19 Aug, 2017 it has hosted 32 Tests, 21 ODIs and 1 T20I.

## Crowd

The Chepauk crowd is known to be amongst the most appreciative in the country. The crowd gave a standing ovation to Saeed Anwar after scoring the highest ever ODI score of 194 against India in 1997. The crowd was again appreciative when Pakistan won a Test match in 1999 and the Pakistani team made a lap of honour in appreciation of the spectators' sporting behaviour.

## Records of the stadium and in the stadium

India hold the record for the highest score on the ground when they hit 759-7d runs against England in 2016. India hold the record for the lowest score at the ground when England restricted them to just 83. Sunil Gavaskar (1018 runs) had scored the most number of runs in this stadium followed by Sachin Tendulkar (876 runs) and Gundappa Vishwanath (785 runs) in Tests. Anil Kumble (48 wickets) had taken the most wickets in this stadium followed by Kapil Dev (40 wickets) and Harbhajan Singh (39 wickets) in Tests.

The highest ODI score here was made by Pakistan in 1997 when Pakistan scored 327–5, India replied with 292 all out, which is the third highest score here. The second highest score is 299–8 made by India on 22 October 2015 against South Africa which India defended successfully. The fourth highest score is 289–4 made by Australia against New Zealand. Yuvraj Singh has scored the most number of runs here with 255 runs in ODIs. Mohammad Rafique has taken the most number of wickets (14 wickets), followed by Ajit Agarkar, who is the highest wicket taking Indian cricketer.

## Notable events

- The first ever match of the Ranji Trophy was held on 4 November 1934 between Madras and Mysore at Chepauk. M J Gopalan of Madras bowled the first ball to N Curtis.
- India recorded their first test victory, in their 24th match, against England at Cheupak in 1952.
- The second ever Tied Test in cricket history was played here between India and Australia in 1986.
- Sunil Gavaskar scored his 30th test match century in 1983 breaking Don Bradman's record for most centuries in test cricket.
- Narendra Hirwani's 8 wickets for 61 runs against the West Indies in January 1988 are the best bowling figures by an Indian on Test début and the third overall. As of December 2014, he is the only Indian cricketer to take ten or more wickets in Test debut. Hirwani's figures of 16 wickets for 136 runs in the match are a record for any bowler on début.
- Saeed Anwar of Pakistan scored 194 against India in 1997, the highest ODI score at that time.
- On 15 October 2004, Shane Warne surpassed Muttiah Muralitharan's tally of 532 Test wickets to become the highest wicket taker during the time.
- Virender Sehwag scored 319 against South Africa, in the home series in April 2008 in the first Test at M A Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, having reached 300 off just 278 balls, the fastest triple century in test history. Sehwag became only the third batsman after Donald Bradman and Brian Lara to score two triple centuries in Test Cricket. He scored 257 runs the third day of the match, which was the most runs scored by an individual batsman on a single day of a Test match since 1954.
Sachin Tendulkar has scored more runs in Chepauk than any other venue in India with 876 runs in nine Tests at an average of 87.60.
- On 22 March 2001, India defeated Australia by 2 wickets to clinch the Border Gavaskar Trophy following India's win in Kolkata which ended the 16 match winning streak of Australia in test matches.
- India's 387/4 in the fourth innings of the first Test against England in December 2008, became the highest successful run chase in a test match in India.
- MS Dhoni became the first Indian wicket keeper Batsman to score a double century in the first test between 22–26 February 2013 against Australia, which also is the highest score by a wicket keeper captain
- Karun Nair scored 303* not out in the 5th test against England in the home series on 19 December 2016. India declared in the innings on 759–7. He became the 6th youngest batsman to score 300 and the 2nd Indian (after Virender Sehwag) to do so. He was dropped on 34 by England captain Alastair Cook.