City Oval (formerly Alexandra Park and sometimes called the Pietermaritzburg Oval), is a

multi-purpose stadium A multi-purpose stadium is a type of stadium designed to be easily used for multiple types of events. While any stadium could potentially host more than one type of sport or event, this concept usually refers to a design philosophy that stres ...

in Pietermaritzburg,

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. The 12,000 capacity stadium is currently used predominantly for

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

matches, with the ground being used by KwaZulu-Natal Inland men's and women's teams,

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN) is a Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the government merged the Zulu people, Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu language, Zulu) and ...

and Dolphins (who also play at Kingsmead,

Durban Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South ...

), and hosted two matches during the 2003 Cricket World Cup. It is one of only three

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

grounds in the world to have a tree within the boundary ropes (the others being St Lawrence Ground in

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. The city has a mild oceanic climat ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and VRA Cricket Ground in

Amstelveen Amstelveen () is a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland, Netherlands, with a population of 95,996 as of 202 ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

), and any cricketer that scores a

century A century is a period of 100 years or 10 decades. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. ...

or takes a five-wicket haul in a match at the City Oval gets to plant a tree at the ground. The City Oval Pavilion is based on the design of Queen's Park cricket ground in Chesterfield,

History

The City Oval, then known as Alexandra Park, hosted its first

match in 1894/95. Between 1895 and 1957, the City Oval hosted 9 first-class matches between Natal and

Marylebone Cricket Club The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's, Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London, England. The club was the governing body of cricket from 1788 to 1989 and retain ...

. The ground has been used to host many matches between South African A sides and touring cricket teams. First class matches were also played between Natal and Australians touring team in 1950 and 1958. In 2000, the City Oval hosted a

List A List A cricket is a classification of the Limited overs cricket, limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competit ...

match between

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

and the South African Board President's XI; Charl Langeveldt took 5/7 as Bangladesh were bowled out for 51, and lost the match by 10 wickets. South Africa A have additionally played List A matches at the City Oval against Australia A in 2002/03 and Sri Lanka A in 2008/09. In July 2015, City Oval hosted three youth ODIs between South Africa U-19 team and Bangladesh U-19 team; South Africa U-19 won 2 matches, and Bangladesh U-19 won one match. In December 2015, the ground hosted a warmup match between South Africa A and

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, which England won by an innings and 91 runs; Alastair Cook and Joe Root both hit centuries, and Moeen Ali took 6/77 in the second innings.

2003 Cricket World Cup

The City Oval has hosted two One Day International (ODI) matches, both of them in the 2003 Cricket World Cup. Prior to the World Cup, the ground was renovated, with the introduction of the Jubilee Stand, named to commemorate

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

's diamond jubilee in 1897. The first ODI at the ground was played between

and

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

. In the first over of the match, Sri Lankan Chaminda Vaas took 4 wickets, including a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three Wick ...

with the first three balls of the match, the first time this had occurred in international cricket. Vaas' wickets were Hannan Sarkar bowled off the first ball, Mohammed Ashraful caught and bowled off the second ball, Ehsanul Haque was caught by

Mahela Jayawardene Denagamage Praboth Mahela de Silva Jayawardene (; born 27 May 1977) is a Sri Lankan former professional cricketer and captain of the Sri Lanka national cricket team, Sri Lankan national cricket team. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest ...

at slip off the third ball, and Sanwar Hossain off the fifth ball, making the score 5/4 from 1 over. He finished with figures of 6/25 from 9.1 overs with 2 maidens, as Sri Lanka beat Bangladesh by 10 wickets. The second ODI was between

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

and

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

; Indian batsmen

Sachin Tendulkar Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar (; ; born 24 April 1973) is an Indian former international cricketer who List of India national cricket captains#Men's cricket, captained the Indian national team. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest cricketer ...

and Sourav Ganguly scored a 244 run partnership for the second wicket, the seventh highest partnership at the Cricket World Cup as of 2016. Ganguly made 112 from 119 balls, and Tendulkar made 152 runs from 151 balls, his highest score in World Cup matches. India scored 311 runs, eventually winning the match by 181 runs. Tendulkar was awarded the man of the match award.

International centuries

Two ODI centuries have been scored at the venue.

Five-wicket hauls

There has been only one five-wicket haul at the venue.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Cricinfo Website – Ground Page

Cricket grounds in South Africa Multi-purpose stadiums in South Africa Sports venues in KwaZulu-Natal 1888 establishments in the Colony of Natal Sports venues completed in 1888 Pietermaritzburg 19th-century architecture in South Africa