Sports History
In recent history, Kotla has become synonymous with Anil Kumble, whose favorite haunt as a bowler was this ground, culminating in 63 wickets from 11 games here. Next best was Kapil Dev who took 38 from 14. Kotla not only marked Kumble's last Test, it also was the venue to the historic ten-wickets in an innings haul of 10/74 against arch-rivals Pakistan in 1999. Eerily the year Kumble exited Test career, in 2008, Kotla entered an international Test ban for one year and has not hosted a Test match since. Its due to host England in 2011.
In 1952, playing against Pakistan, Hemu Adhikari and Ghulam Ahmed were involved in a record tenth wicket stand of 109 runs - a record that still stands. In 1965, S Venkataraghavan, in his debut series, demolished the New Zealand line up with figures of 8 for 72 and 4 for 80. In 1969-70, Bishen Singh Bedi and Erapalli Prasanna combined to spin India to a famous seven wicket win over Australia, the duo picking 18 wickets between themselves.
England's John Lever had a memorable debut at the Kotla in 1976, when he notched up a half-century and had match figures of 10 for 70. Five years later, Geoff Boycott surpassed Gary Sobers' world record Test aggregate. In 1983-84, Sunil Gavaskar scored his 29th century to equal Don Bradman's long standing record for the highest number of hundreds in Test cricket. In 1999-2000, in a match against Pakistan, Anil Kumble took 10 for 74 in forth inning of a Test Match and became the second person to take 10 wickets in an innings after Jim Laker. In 2005-06, at the same ground, Sachin Tendulkar broke Gavaskar's record of most centuries with his 35th Test century.
The highest scores were made by West Indies, scoring 644-8 in 1959 and 631 all out in 1948. The next highest score was made by India scoring 613-7 in 2008 in Test cricket. The most runs scored here was by Dilip Vengsarkar (673 runs), followed by Sunil Gavaskar (668 runs) and Sachin Tendulkar (643 runs). The most wickets taken here was by Anil Kumble (58 wickets), followed by Kapil Dev (32 wickets)and Bhagwath Chandresekhar (23 wickets).
The highest scores were made by West Indies, scoring 330-8 in the 2011 Cicket World Cup in ODIs. The next highest scores were made by Pakistan who scored 303-8 in 2005 and Australia who scored 294-3 in 1998.
The most runs scored here was by Sachin Tendulkar (300 runs), followed by Mohammed Azharuddin (267 runs) and Ricky Ponting (245 runs). Kemar Roach, Harbhajan Singh and Ajit Agarkar have taken 7 wickets on this ground in ODIs.
Read more about this topic: Feroz Shah Kotla Ground
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