Know about Chepauk stadium named after M. A. Chidambaram

New Delhi: Formerly known as Madras Cricket Club Ground, Chepauk Stadium was built in the year 1916 which makes it the oldest cricket stadium in India which is in continuous use till present. The stadium is situated in Chepauk, Chennai. The stadium was renamed after M. A. Chidambaram, a former President of BCCI and Tamil Nadu Cricket Association. Famously known among cricket lovers as Chepauk, its first match was played 10 February 1934. Constructed by East Coast Constructions and Industries, this stadium is where the Indian cricket team won its first ever Test match in 1952 against England. Sunil Gavaskar made his record breaking 30th Test hundred on this ground in 1983-84. The India-Australia encounter in 1986-87 ended in a tie - only the second in the game's long history. In the very next season, leg spinner Narendra Hirwani achieved the best match analysis by a player on Test debut, finishing with 16 for 136. The Chepauk crowd is known to be amongst the most well-behaved and enthusiastic in the country.This fact was established when those present gave a standing ovation to Saeed Anwar after his record breaking 194 against India in the Independence Cup match in 1997 and again when Pakistan won a Test match in 1999. A truly overwhelmed Pakistani team even made a lap of honour in admiration of the spectators' sporting spirit. The ground has hosted matches for three World Cups of 1987, 1996 and 2011. The ground can accommodate 38,000 spectators. M.A. Chidambaram stadium is the home ground of Tamil Nadu cricket team and also for Chennai Super Kings which takes part in the Indian Premier League and won the tournament twice. Let's have a look at its interesting facts and figures:• The first-ever Ranji Trophy match was played here, in which AG Ram Singh took 11 wickets on a sticky to bowl Madras to a win over Mysore within a day.• India recorded its first Test win here, in 1951-52, when it defeated England by an innings and eight runs.• The second tied Test in cricket's history was also played here, between India and Australia in 1986.• Virender Sehwag's 319 against South Africa is the highest test score at the ground.• This stadium played host to the second tied-test in the history of Test cricket.• Saeed Anwar's 194 against India is the highest score on this ground. This was also the highest score in ODI's until Sachin Tendulkar reached the 200 landmark against South Africa.• England hold the record for the highest score on the ground so far when they hit 652-7d runs against India.Incidentally, this also became the fourth highest in Test match history.The next highest score is by India who were all out for 627 runs against South Africa in 2008. The third highest is West Indies who were all out for 582 in 1949 against India in Tests.• The Indians hold the record for the lowest score at the ground when England restricted them to just 83.• Narendra Hirwani's match bowling figures of 16/136 currently are the best at the ground.• Rahul Dravid scored his 10,000th Test run on this ground.• India's 387/4 in the fourth innings of the first Test against England in December 2008, became the highest successful run chase in India.• Sunil Gavaskar(1018 runs) had scored the most number of runs in this stadium followed by Sachin Tendulkar(876 runs) and Gundappa Vishwanath(785 runs) in Tests.• Anil Kumble (48 wickets) had taken the most wickets in this stadium followed by Kapil Dev(40 wickets) and Harbhajan Singh(39 wickets) in Tests.• It was in Chepauk, that Sachin Tendulkar scored his first century in the fourth innings in a winning cause for India.• Sachin Tendulkar has scored more runs in Chepauk - 876 in nine Tests at an average of 87.60 - than any other venue in India.• On 15 October 2004 Shane Warne surpassed Muttiah Muralitharan's tally of 532 Test wickets when he took the wicket of Irfan Pathan. It was his 533rd Test wicket taken in his 114th Test.• On 22 March 2001 India defeated Australia by 2 wickets to clinch the Border–Gavaskar trophy after losing it to Australia in 1999–2000 series. A match winning century by Sachin Tendulkar and a record of 32 wickets in the Test series by Harbhajan Singh helped India to end the winning streak of Australia consecutively followed by an epic Kolkata test.Australia won 16 tests in succession.• The highest ODI score here was made by Pakistan in 1997, where Saeed Anwar scored 194 runs. Pakistan scored 327-5, India replied with 292 all out, which is the second highest, score here. The third highest score is 289-4 made by Australia against New Zealand .• Yuvraj Singh has scored the most number of runs here with 255 runs in ODIs. He is followed by Geoff Marsh(246 runs) and Saeed Anwar(194 runs).• Mohammad Rafique has taken the most number of wickets (14 wickets), followed by Ajit Agarkar and Morné Morkel (7 wickets each).• Sachin Tendulkar has scored the most centuries at Chepauk hitting 5 centuries.• Dhoni's 224 (February 2013, against Australia) is the highest score by an Indian captain in Tests bettering Sachin Tendulkar's 217 against New Zealand at Ahmedabad in 1999.