Kensington Oval

The Kensington Oval is a cricket stadium situated in Bridgetown, Barbados. The Barbados local team and the West Indies national team are the home teams at this venue.

The stadium has a crowd capacity of 28,000 and has hosted a total of 104 international matches. The two ends at this stadium are named after their bowling greats - Joel Garner End and Malcolm Marshall End.

History

One of the oldest stadiums in the world, it was established in the year 1871. The Pickwick Cricket Club formally owns the ground. The stadium was re-built with an expenditure of $135 million in 2004-05 to meet the needs of the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup.

It hosted West Indies’s first ever Test match at home, against England from 11 January 1930. The match lasted all the five days but only three innings were completed, ending the match in a draw.

The same match saw England’s Andy Sandham scoring the very first triple century in the history of Test cricket. Sandham scored 325 runs, playing for 10 hours against the West Indies bowling attack.

The first ever ODI here featured West Indies and New Zealand, played on 23 April 1985. A target of 266 proved to be too much for the Kiwis as they lost the match by 112 runs.

Major matches

In 2005, West Indies lost a closely fought ODI against South Africa. After losing the toss and batting first, the Proteas posted 284 on the board with H Dippenaar playing the sheet anchor’s role and scoring 123 runs. CH Gayle played a similar innings of 132 for the home team but none of the other batsmen supported him. Langeveldt ran through the West Indian tail and secured a 1-run win for the Proteas.

This historic stadium was one of the venues of the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup were played here. The stadium hosted seven matches including the final. Australia won the final against Sri Lanka.

The 2010 ICC T20 World Cup was also played here. It was a venue for 11 matches including the final of the tournament. England defeated the Aussies to win their maiden title.

Controversies

In a match between Australia and West Indies, Sherwin Campbell was controversially given run-out and the crowd went violent and started throwing things in the outfield.

One of the bottles had just missed the head of the Aussie captain Steve Waugh.

In another incident dating back to 1988, Rob Bailey was controversially given out late. A delivery from Curtly Ambrose brushed the thigh pad of Bailey and went into the hands of the wicketkeeper Jeff Dujon. The umpire looked certain that it was not out and had started walking towards square leg as it was the last ball of the over.

Suddenly, Viv Richards appealing loudly. To everybody’s surprise, the umpire quickly raised the finger and gave Bailey out caught behind.

Wisden reported, “Bailey was given out in controversial circumstances by umpire Barker after a charging finger-flapping appeal by Richards which was at best undignified and unsightly. At worst, it was calculated gamesmanship.”

Recent matches

The most recent match at this venue was a T20 international between West Indies and Pakistan. West Indies posted a below-par total of 111, as Pakistan chased the target in 17.1 overs with six wickets in hand.

Pakistani spinner Shadab Khan took 3/7 in his 4 overs and won the Man of the Match award on debut.