Schizo stadium asks unusual questions

Times Media

TELFORD VICE, Auckland

WHAT looks like a rugby stadium, feels like a rugby stadium and actually is a rugby stadium - but is also a cricket ground?

Eden Park, which has hosted football, rugby league, Russian gymnasts, British royalty, and the Dalai Lama, is this schizophrenic place.

It is the only venue to have staged two rugby World Cup finals, in 1987 and 2011. The 1988 rugby league World Cup final was also played there.

And to think Eden Park was originally a swamp. Cricket has been played there since 1900. In fact, no other sport was played there until 1913, when rugby made its debut.

What with the pitch laid along what would be the halfway line in a rugby match - which means abrupt straight boundaries - the ground asks unusual questions of batsmen and bowlers. Sometimes, they answer them poorly.

Like Australia did when they crashed and burned to 151 all out against New Zealand on Saturday. Afterwards, Aussie captain Michael Clarke asked a few questions of his own about the way his team prepared for the match - which was interpreted as having a go at coach Darren Lehmann.

“I think sometimes in T20 cricket and one-day cricket you can get caught up working on the power side of your game,” Clarke said. “I don’t think we have had too many training sessions where we have worked on the start of our game and actually defending the brand new ball or the swinging ball.”

Eden Park could be called the chasing team’s ground - marginally. Sides who have batted first in one-day internationals have won 26 times. Teams batting second have won 38 ODIs there.

The stadium, which holds 50 000 people, is also home to one of the most vociferously partisan crowds in sport. Happily for SA and Pakistan, then, New Zealand aren’t playing on Friday.

Eden Park ODIs - 69 (February, 1976 - February, 2015)

Highest total: 340/5 (New Zealand v Australia - February 18, 2007)

Lowest total: 73 (New Zealand v Sri Lanka - January 6, 2007)

Highest score: Glenn Turner 140 (New Zealand v Sri Lanka - March 20, 1983)

Best bowling: Mitchell Starc 6/28 (Australia v New Zealand - February 28, 2015)