The Oval, also known as Kia Oval for sponsorship reasons, is an international cricket stadium located in Kennington, South of London. This stadium has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club (Surrey CCC) since it was opened in the year 1845.
The owner and operator of the ground, Surrey CCC, is currently working up on development plans that would be completed for the Ashes in 2023. This would make the Kia Oval the largest cricket stadium in the UK with a capacity of 40,000. Presently, the ground has a capacity of 25,500.
History
The Oval ground was built on part of the former Kennington Common, a large area of common land which was notable for being one of the earliest venues for cricket within London.
In 1844, the site of the Kennington Oval was a market garden owned by the Duchy of Cornwall, one of the two royal Duchies in England. On 10th of March 1845, the Duchy leased the land for the purpose of a cricket ground.
In the year of 1868, about 20,000 spectators gathered at The Oval for the first game of the Aboriginal cricket tour of England.
Oval hosted the first Test match in England in 1880 between the teams of the England and Australia, and hence, became the second ground to stage a Test, after the Melbourne Cricket Ground. In 1884, Australia’s Billy Murdoch became the first cricketer to score a test double century.
The first One Day International match at this venue was played on 7th September 1973 between England and West Indies. The stadium has hosted matches of the 1975, 1979, 1983, and 1999 World Cups. It has also hosted five of the fifteen matches in the 2004 ICC Champions Trophy, including the finals.
Major Matches
The ground hosted its hundredth Test match, against South Africa, on 27th of July, 2017. Thereby, it become the fourth Test venue after the Lord's Cricket Ground, Melbourne Cricket Ground and Sydney Cricket Ground to do so.
In the same match, the English cricketer Moeen Ali became the first ever player to take a Test hat-trick on the ground, bowling out South Africa in the second innings to win the match.
The highest team score in a Test match held at the stadium ground is 903/7 by England team against Australia in August 1938.
Recent Matches
The last test match that was held at the stadium was from 27th to 31st of July 2017 between England and South Africa.
The last ODI held at the ground was between England and West Indies on 27th of September 2017.
