Stats: Analysis of the Green Park Stadium, Kanpur

The Green Park Stadium at Kanpur, the venue for the 1^st ODI between India and South Africa

With the T20 series done and dusted, South Africa’s long tour of India now moves to the ODIs. The hosts would be looking to put the T20 losses behind and turn the tides in their favour in the 5-match ODI series beginning with the opener set to be hosted by the Green Park Stadium at Kanpur.

Having a capacity of around 40000, the stadium is expected to get packed to the rafters. The reason being the stadium has not hosted too many international matches off late. The last match here was played in 2013 between India and West Indies which the hosts won by 5 wickets with Shikhar Dhawan scoring a blistering century and grabbing the Player of the Match award.

The Green Park Stadium has been a fruitful hunting ground for India having won 9 out of the 12 ODIs played at the venue. Since the year 2002, just 5 ODIs have been played there and India has emerged victorious on 4 occasions and India would be hoping to continue their winning streak on this ground as they attempt to get the ODI series off to a winning start.

Traditionally, the pitch at Kanpur has assisted the batsmen. Mohammad Azharuddin scored last of his first 3 consecutive centuries since Test debut here while Shahid Afridi once notched up a fiery ton as well. Sachin Tendulkar is the leading scorer with 342 runs in 8 innings and Javagal Srinath is the leading wicket taker with 9 wickets in 4 matches.

It is one of Sourav Ganguly’s most luckiest hunting grounds having scored 208 runs at an average of 69.33 while also picking up 7 wickets from 4 matches. Three medium pacers and two spinners make up the Top 5 wicket takers at this ground leaving very little to choose from.

The dew factor will not play any role as it is going to be a day game. A 9 AM start might help the fast bowlers in the beginning but later like every other Indian pitch, it is bound to assist the spinners. The average first innings score in the last 5 matches at Kanpur is 253 which might show that runs won’t be easy to come by but a lot has changed in ODI cricket since the previous matches there.

Here is a look at the numbers from the last five ODI matches that India played at Kanpur.

Last five ODI matches at Green Park – Match statistics

No	Opposition	Toss	Brief scores	Result	MotM
1	England (Jan 2002)	ENG – Bat	ENG – 218/7 IND – 219/2	India won by 8 wickets	Virender Sehwag
2	Pakistan (April 2005)	IND – Bat	IND – 249/6 PAK – 252/5	Pakistan won by 5 wickets	Shahid Afridi
3	Pakistan (Nov 2007)	PAK – Bowl	IND – 294/6 PAK – 248/10	India won by 46 runs	Yuvraj Singh
4	England (Nov 2008)	ENG – Bat	ENG – 240/10 IND – 198/5	India won by 16 runs(D/L method)	Harbhajan Singh
5	West Indies (Nov 2013)	IND – Bowl	WI – 263/5 IND – 266/5	India won by 5 wickets	Shikhar Dhawan

As the history suggests, India will be the favourites in the first game. The hosts would bank on the spinners in the series as their role is of much more importance as compared to the T20s. They look to be secured having as many as 3 spinners in the squad. Ashwin is in the form of his life while Amit Mishra and Axar Patel will fight it out for the second spinner’s slot.

South Africa on the other hand will be boosted by the return of Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel who were rested for the T20s. If South Africa bowl first, the duo would look to exploit the moisture from the pitch if there is going to be any. The onus of the spin department would be on Imran Tahir who would bowl in the middle overs and look to content the runs.

The curator of the Kanpur pitch has suggested that it is going to be a sporting deck and won’t favour a single department of the game. In this case, it promises to be a fascinating contest between bat and bowl.