Situated in Moore Park in the city's east, the Sydney Cricket Ground is one of the world's most famous cricketing venues. For a stadium in a major centre, it has a relatively limited capacity (a little over 40,000) but this has the direct benefit of ensuring that spectators are close to the action from virtually any point in the ground. Its limited capacity is, in fact, essentially the result of the extension over recent years of seating to most parts of a stadium now devoid of its long famous hill and instead dominated by the Brewongle, Churchill, O'Reilly, Noble and Doug Walters Stands. The green-roofed Ladies pavilion remains, still one of cricket's most famous landmarks.
Cricket has been played at the ground from as long ago as the 1848, then known as the Garrison Ground, but many other sports, predominantly football codes, have established a presence, to such an extent no less that a bike track actually ringed the playing surface between the 1890s and 1920s. This relationship has also been tested by the generally strained connection between the SCG Trust (the body appointed to control the ground) and the New South Wales Cricket Association, the low point of which was reached in the late 1970s when Neville Wran's State government created legislation to reconfigure the composition of the Trust and bring Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket to the ground.
In its earlier incarnations, the pitches were favourable for batting, and many mammoth scores were produced. The highest of these (in an individual sense) was compiled in the 1929-30 season, when Sir Donald Bradman made his celebrated personal best of 452* for New South Wales in a match against Queensland. From the early 1970s though, the square's character has undergone a number of revisions. Principally, it has come to be seen as a spinner's paradise - never more clearly than in memorable Australian Test wins over West Indies in 1984-85 (when Bob Holland and Murray Bennett piloted the home team to a crushing success) and in 1988-89 (when the left arm orthodox spin of Allan Border claimed an unlikely 11 scalps). Of course, this is not to say that the limelight has been stolen purely by slow bowlers; West Indian Brian Lara's masterful 277 in 1992-93 and paceman Fanie De Villiers' match haul of 10 for 123 at the forefront of South Africa's amazing five run win in 1993-94 underlining the point.SL : 219/10 (45.2 Overs)
KC Sangakkara 49 (70)
TM Dilshan 42 (33)
Pak: 220/2 (43.2 Overs)
Salman Butt 100 (117) not out
Khurram Manzoor 83 (128)
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Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the West Indies batsman, could be sidelined from the second ODI against New Zealand in Christchurch on Saturday due to a hand injury.
Gayle said a decision on Chanderpaul could be delayed until just before the toss to give him as much time as possible to recover. "He's our number one player," said Gayle. "If you don't have Shiv in the team it's a big loss."
In the last match here 10 months ago, England were restricted to 242 with the wicket favouring New Zealand's spin pairing of Daniel Vettori and Jeetan Patel. Similar conditions could see Patel replace Grant Elliot in the New Zealand line-up. "That wicket was a bit slow and took some turn as I recall so we will just have to see what the surface looks like when we get there," Vettori said.
Date: 3rd Jan 2008
Venue: Christchurch
Match Type: Day Night
Time: 14:00 local, 01:00 GMT
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