Oval Cricket Ground

The oval is an international cricket ground in Kennington, London knows as Kia Oval. The oval is historic ground. it was the first ground in England to host the international Test cricket in 1880 England vs Australia. By the end of the English season, final test always played here. Despite of cricket oval hosted other games like football and rugby as well.it was the ground where England’s first international match played here. In 1872 it also hosted the first FA cup final. It also hosted rugby match England vs Wales and England vs Scotland as well. In 2017 ICC Champion trophy’s final was also played here.

History of The Oval:

In the early 18^th century Kennington oval site was a market garden owned by Cornwall. Duchy was willing to lease the land for the cricket ground. In 1845 leased the land to Montpelier Cricket Club. The otter Trustees who held the land from the Duchy and convert into cricket ground for 31 years on £140 per annum including taxes.

In 1845 Surrey Country Club was established and first cricket match played here. In 1880 first match played here at Oval between England and Australia. After Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) Kia Oval was the second ground to host a test match. The first double century was also scored at The Oval by Billy Murdoch.

At this historic cricket ground, South Africa was the second visiting team to play a test match while West Indies played its first test match followed by New Zealand India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka also played the test match at Oval.

The first One Day International match between England and West Indies in 1973. It hosted matches of feature cricket event. It hosted the 1975,79,83 and 99 world cup matches and it also hosted the ICC Champions Trophy matches in 2004.

In 2006 first time a test match forfeited here between Pakistan and England when umpires Darrell Hair and Billy Doctrove charged five runs plenty because of ball-tampering after Pakistan refused to come out in the match in protest.

In 2017 against South Africa Kia Oval hosted its 100^th test match after SCG, MCG and Lord’s. Moeen Ali becomes the first player who took test hat-trick at The Kia Oval. The highest score at Oval is 903/7 declared against Australia. Alastair Cook is the highest runs scorer and Ian Botham is leading wicket-taker at this oval While in One day International 398/5 is the highest score by New Zealand against England in 2015. Eoin Morgan is the leading run scorer and James Anderson is the leading wicket-taker.  

Football at The Oval:

The oval is an important site in the history of football development when there was no specific ground for the sport. This was the first venue to represent football match between England and Scotland, organized by the Football Association. The first official international match also played here. First FA Cup semi-finals and final is also played here.