Holkar Stadium
Holkar Cricket Stadium is located in Indore, India.
It was earlier known as Maharani Usharaje Trust Cricket Ground. But in 2010, Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association renamed it after the Holkar dynasty of the Marathas that ruled Indore. Indore city has another International Cricket stadium "Nehru Stadium" which was used for International matches until 31 March 2001.
It has a seating capacity of around 30,000 spectators. It is also equipped with flood lights for night matches. Virender Sehwag recorded the third highest ODI score of 219 at this ground. Gwalior's Captain Roop Singh Stadium, another international stadium in Madhya Pradesh, is a bit smaller than Indore's Holkar Cricket Stadium. However, capacity of Captain Roop Singh Stadium is more than Indore's Holkar Cricket Stadium.
The ground stages the majority of Madhya Pradesh cricket team's home matches in the Ranji Trophy. The stadium was selected to be one of the six new Test venues in India. On 8 October 2016, Holkar stadium hosted its first Test match when India hosted New Zealand for the third and final test of the series and became the twenty-second test venue of India.
History
The credit for giving land for the stadium goes to the Holkar's of the Maratha Confederacy.The ruling Maratha family of Indore State encouraged and pioneered cricket in this part of the country. Holkar cricket team appeared in ten Ranji Trophy season's, reaching the final eight times and winning the title four times.
It is on the some part of this ground that an older stadium was present where the Holkar's cricket team won its three Ranji Trophy titles, in the late 1940s and early 1950s. In this sense, some part of this stadium has seen greats like C.K. Nayudu and Mushtaq Ali playing for Ranji Trophy.
The stadium has hosted four One Day Internationals, two of them between India and England. The first was staged on 15 April 2006, India successfully chased 289 to complete a 5-0 series win in what was a dead rubber. Its second international match came two and a half years later when England next toured, India again winning. The other two were against West Indies and South Africa.
The Stadium hosted its first ever IPL match on 13 May 2011. The Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Kochi is the home venue for the Indian Premier League team Kochi Tuskers Kerala and officially hosted 5 home-matches of the franchise. The remaining 2 home matches were played at the Holkar Cricket Stadium. In 2017, Kings XI Punjab selected the Holkar stadium as one of their home grounds for three IPL matches.
Virender Sehwag made the highest runs in a limited over innings of cricket 219 here on 8 December 2011 against West Indies, which was later broken by Rohit Sharma.
In November 2015, the stadium was selected to be one of the six new Test venues along with Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, JSCA International Stadium Complex, Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium and Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in India.
Holkar Stadium hosted its maiden Test match in October 2016 when New Zealand cricket team toured India. India defeated New Zealand by 321 runs on the fourth day to complete a 3-0 series whitewash.
The Stadium was selected to host the final of the 2016-17 edition of the Ranji Trophy from 10 January 2017.
Stadium hosted 2 international matches in 2017, One Day International between Indian Cricket Team & Australian Cricket Team was played on 24 September 2017 whereas T20 International between Indian Cricket Team & Sri Lanka Cricket Team was played in December 2017. In this T20I match Rohit Sharma scored his 2nd T20I century. He scored 118 runs from 43 balls
Naming of various landmarks around the stadium
In 2011, a committee was formed to decide the naming of Pavilion, Dressing Rooms and Stands/Galleries around the stadium. This committee had Surya Prakash Chaturvedi as the chairman. As per the recommendations of the committee following landmarks have been named :- Press Box named after HH Maharaja Madhav Rao Scindia of Gwalior State
- Pavilion's named after Col. C.K. Nayudu and Capt. Mushtaq Ali.
- Dressing Room's named after Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi and Rahul Dravid.
- Stadium Gates named after former International cricketers from this part of the country, who are Narendra Hirwani, Amay Khurasia and Rajesh Chauhan.
- One of the two galleries contains Stands named after greats of Indian cricket like Vijay Hazare, Ajit Wadekar, Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble. The other gallery contains stands named after greats of Holkar era like J. N. Bhaya, M. M. Jagdale, Khandu Rangnekar, Hiralal Gaekwad, Chandu Sarwate and C. S. Nayudu. This combination of current and former cricketers named opposite to each other is unique in itself and not been seen elsewhere.
- The commentators' Box in the stadium has been named after Sushil Doshi, renowned Hindi commentator.
Ground profile
This is considered as one of the smallest grounds in terms of field size to have hosted international cricket in the world. The straight boundaries are a mere 68 meters while the square ones aren't more than 56 meters. Along with these features, a flat pitch with true bounce where the ball normally comes on to the bat well, a lightning fast outfield and altitude over 600m above sea level making the ball travel much further when hit into the air make this ground a batsman's paradise.
- 2016–17 Ranji Trophy final match was organized here.
List of Centuries
Key
- * denotes that the batsman was not out.
- Inns. denotes the number of the innings in the match.
- Balls denotes the number of balls faced in an innings.
- NR denotes that the number of balls was not recorded.
- Parentheses next to the player's score denotes his century number at Edgbaston.
- The column title Date refers to the date the match started.
- The column title Result refers to the player's team result
Test Centuries
| No. | Score | Player | Team | Balls | Inns. | Opposing team | Date | Result |
| 1 | 211 | Virat Kohli | 366 | 1 | 8 October 2016 | Won | ||
| 2 | 188 | Ajinkya Rahane | 381 | 1 | 8 October 2016 | Won | ||
| 3 | 101* | Cheteshwar Pujara | 148 | 3 | 8 October 2016 | Won | ||
| 4 | 243 | Mayank Agarwal | 330 | 2 | 14 November 2019 | Won |
One Day Internationals
| No. | Score | Player | Team | Balls | Inns. | Opposing team | Date | Result |
| 1 | 118 | Yuvraj Singh | 122 | 1 | 17 November 2008 | Won | ||
| 2 | 219 | Virender Sehwag | 149 | 1 | 8 December 2011 | Won | ||
| 3 | 124 | Aaron Finch | 125 | 1 | 24 September 2017 | Lost |
Twenty20 Internationals
List of Five Wicket Hauls
Key
Tests
| No. | Bowler | Date | Team | Opposing team | Inn | Overs | Runs | Wkts | Econ | Batsmen | Result |
| 1 | Ravichandran Ashwin | 8 10 2016 | 2 | 81 |
| Won | |||||
| 2 | Ravichandran Ashwin | 8 10 2016 | 4 | 59 | Won |
One Day Internationals
| No. | Bowler | Date | Team | Opposing team | Inn | Overs | Runs | Wkts | Econ | Batsmen | Result |
| 1 | S. Sreesanth | 15 04 2006 | 1 | 10 | 55 |
| Won |