Venue Description:
The stadium is named after the former President of BCCI and Tamil Nadu Cricket Association, MA Chidambaram. It was formerly known as Madras Cricket Club Ground. The ground was established in 1916, making it the oldest venue in India which is in continuous use. The stadium is more commonly known as Chepauk - the locality in which it is situated.
Since 2008, the venue is home to Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League. It hosted its first ever international game in 1934, a Test match between India and England, which the visitors won by 202 runs. The stadium has gone through several changes since then. The most notable ones being, the addition of floodlights in 1996 and the reconstruction in 2009 to accommodate more people and give state-of-art facility.
The most fascinating thing about the ground is the crowd support. It is common knowledge that the Chepauk crowd is the most unbiased and the most knowledgeable crowd in the country. Saeed Anwar got a standing ovation when he made a record-breaking 194. When Pakistan won the 1999 Test, the team received good appreciation from the crowd. As mark of respect, the Pakistani team also took a lap of honour around the ground.
How does the pitch play?
When the pitches were uncovered and unattended to, it used to help the fast bowlers. However, since India started playing the spin quartet of Bishan Singh Bedi, BS Chandrasekar, S Venkatraghavan and EAS Prasanna, the wickets were made spin-friendly. Taking a look at the stats gives you a clear indication as to what type of bowlers hold the aces on the Chepauk wicket.
Among the top 10 wicket-takers at the ground, nine of them are spinners and the only fast bowler on the list is Kapil Dev. Anil Kumble sits on top of the list with 48 wickets, followed closely by Harbhajan Singh - 42 wickets.
Interesting facts about Chepauk:
The first ever Ranji Trophy game was played at this venue. Madras' AG Ram Singh ran through Mysore with a 11-wicket haul in the match.
For a long time, Chepauk hosted the famous Pongal (Harvest) Test. It used to be played in the month of January.
India registered their first ever Test win at this stadium, when they beat England by an innings and 8 runs.
The second tied Test in the history of cricket was played here, between India and Australia in 1986.
Saeed Anwar recorded the highest individual score in ODIs - 194 - at this ground. The milestone remained for more than a decade, before Sachin Tendulkar scored 200 against South Africa.
Sunil Gavaskar went past Don Bradman's 29 Test hundreds at this very venue.
This ground was also witness to one of Sachin Tendulkar's greatest Test innings. The Indian maestro battled back spasms and almost took his side home against Pakistan in 1999. But his 136 went in vain as the arch-rivals sealed a 12-run victory.
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