Wanderers Stadium - A cricketing wonderland

Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg

12th March, 2006, when Australia amassed 434 runs taking apart the Proteas bowling, no one, even in their wildest dreams would have thought that the target will be overhauled and that too with a ball to spare.

South Africa achieved the impossible courtesy to the power-hitting of Herschelle Gibbs and some sensible batting from the Proteas skipper Graeme Smith and Mark Boucher. That day went into the record books and Wanderers witnessed one of its greatest ever matches.

Since then Wanderers has witnessed several other records. Located in Johannesburg, Wanderers is one of the oldest stadiums in South Africa and also a cricketer’s dream to play cricket in.

T20 Cricket has turned the whole complexion of copybook cricket. Batsmen are inculcating a more aggressive approach to their play. Reverse sweeps, switch hits have come into the fore since the inception of the 20-over format.

West Indies to some extent has mastered this format with the likes of Chris Gayle, Sunil Narine, Marlon Samuels. Recently Wanderers, which is traditionally known to be a graveyard for the bowlers became a witnessing several thrilling contests.

2007 it was. Things couldn’t have shaped out any better since India and Pakistan were locking horns in the final of the inaugural World Twenty20 in South Africa and no prizes for guessing where the match was been played.

It was indeed in the Wanderers. India against an in-form Pakistan bowling attack crawled to a score of 157/5 in their allotted 20 overs courtesy a responsible head in Gautam Gambhir. Chasing seemed to a walk in the park for the Pakistan batsmen most so when Imran Nazir hammered S Sreesanth for 23 in the 2nd over of the match.

India - First World Twenty20 champions

Some clever piece of bowling by Harbhajan Singh, Irfan Pathan and RP Singh ensured that India came back in the contest. Misbah-ul-Haq will never ever forget that day when he played exceptionally well but in the end, a mistimed scoop over short fine-leg area into the hands of Sreesanth ensured India winning the 1st edition of the World T20. Wanderers became no less than a wonderland.

11th January 2015, yet another time cricket records took a hammering when West Indies and South Africa clashed against each other for a T20 match. South Africa made their way to a mammoth 231 runs.

Faf du Plessis powered his way to his maiden T20 century, scoring 119 runs from just 56 balls which included 5 towering sixes. For West Indies to chase down the target they had to achieve the record of the highest successful chase to win a T20.

Two factors were in West Indies’ favour. They had to chase on the batting paradise of Wanderers and they have tremendous firepower right till the tail-enders. They finally managed to chase down the target with an over to spare courtesy some magnificent batting by Gayle and Samuels. This is not the end of it. Wanderers still had a lot to offer.

19th January 2015, a right-handed batsman went berserk and hammered the fastest hundred in an ODI vs West Indies in just 31 balls breaking Corey Anderson’s record in 36 balls vs West Indies in 2013. He eventually scored 144 from just 49 balls. His name is A.B de Villiers.

Wanderers has already given loads of records and exciting matches and will surely keep up to its tradition of providing us with thrilling contests in the future.