The Eden Park Stadium is the largest stadium in New Zealand located in central Auckland. This stadium is mainly used for rugby union matches in winter and for cricket in summer.
This is a grass surfaces stadium owned and operated by Eden Park Trust Board. The stadium has a seater capacity of 60,000 which includes the temporary seating.
The stadium is home to Auckland based rugby team, Blues, who play in the Super Rugby competition, the rugby team Auckland Rugby Union, that plays for the Mitre 10 Cup and the domestic cricket team, Auckland Aces.
Eden Park is also the home ground for the Auckland cricket team.
History
Since 1900, Eden Park was used as a sports ground. It was only two years later the park started being utilized as a cricket ground under the vision of Harry Ryan, a cricket enthusiast who approached the land owner to lease a part of this ground as a cricket field.
Later in 1913, the park was leased to the Auckland Rugby Union to become both summer and winter sporting venue where different sports events could be hosted.
The first international rugby event hosted at the ground was match between New Zealand and South Africa in the year 1921. The Eden Park stadium has hosted several events over years including th 1950 Empire Games, the Queen Mother’s Visit in 1966 to the spiritual buddhist leader Dalai Lama’s visit in the year 2002.
Major Matches
The first Test match hosted at this very ground was in the year 1930, when the hosts played the England cricket team. Eden Park is a witness to the historic moment in the New Zealand cricket, when they tasted their first ever victory in Test cricket. The win came against West Indies in the 1955-56 season, 26 years after the Black Caps played their first ever test.
The ground has hosted four major matches during the 1992 Cricket World Cup which includes the semi-final between New Zealand and Pakistan. The highest total set by a team in the very ground in a Test cricket was by the South African national cricket team against the New Zealand national cricket team with a score of 621/5 (dec) on 27th February 1999.
New Zealand’s former cricketer John Wright owns the title of having scored the most runs in this ground with a total of 1060 runs. With 45 wickets, Richard Hadlee is the highest wicket-taker on this ground.
During the 2015 Cricket World Cup, this ground hosted two pool B games, a pool A clash between co-hosts New Zealand and Australia and the first semi-final between New Zealand and South Africa.
Recent and Future Matches
The recent T20I match held at the stadium was on 17th of February 2017, between New Zealand and South Africa. The ODI match played by the Black Caps against the South African team on 4th of March 2017 was another recent match held at the very ground. At this 5th ODI Day/Night Match, South Africa won by 6 wickets and with 106 balls remaining.
In March 2018, Eden Park will host its very first day-night test of New Zealand, against England. The other three-day night test matches scheduled at the event are on March 2019 and February 2020.
