Wanderers Stadium

Not to be confused with Wanderers Cricket Ground in Namibia.

Bidvest Wanderers Stadium

Ground information
Location	Illovo, Sandton, Johannesburg
Capacity	34,000
End names
Corlett Drive End Golf Course End
International information
First Test	24 December 1956: South Africa v England
Last Test	18 December 2013: South Africa v India
First ODI	13 December 1992: South Africa v India
Last ODI	18 January 2015: South Africa v West Indies
First T20I	21 October 2005: South Africa v New Zealand
Last T20I	11 January 2015: South Africa v West Indies
Team information
Transvaal now known as Highveld Lions (1956 – present)
As of 19 January 2015 Source: Cricinfo

The Bidvest Wanderers Stadium is a stadium situated just south of Sandton in Illovo, Johannesburg in Gauteng Province, South Africa. Test, One Day and First class cricket matches are played here. It is also the home ground for the Highveld Lions, formerly known as Gauteng (Transvaal).

The stadium has a seating capacity of 34,000, and was built in 1956 to replace the Old Wanderers Stadium. It was completely overhauled following South Africa's readmission to international cricket in 1991. In 1996, five new 65 metre high floodlight masts replaced the existing four 30 metre high masts enabling day-night limited-overs cricket. It is nicknamed 'The Bullring' due to its design and intimidating atmosphere.

The ground is among the most historically significant cricket grounds of the twenty-first century. It has staged some of the most important matches in ODI and T20I history, and has witnessed a number of outstanding world records.

The 2003 Cricket World Cup final was held at the Wanderers Stadium. This stadium also hosted one of the greatest One-day international matches. The match was played between South Africa and Australia in which a world record score of 434 was chased down by South Africa. It hosted matches of the 2007 ICC World Twenty20 including the first match and the final which was won by India, who defeated Pakistan.

On 1 October 2004, the Wanderers Clubhouse was virtually destroyed by fire. At that stage it was known as Liberty Life Wanderers, but as from the 2008/09 season, Bidvest Group took up the sponsoring of the ground, thus it became its present-day name of BIDVest Wanderers Stadium.

The pitch is considered very bouncy on cracks and dangerous for batting as acknowledged in 2009 ICC Champions Trophy and teams like Pakistan and Sri Lanka have always struggled there.

The stadium had also hosted the 2009 Indian Premier League's second semi-final and the final in which the Deccan Chargers beat the Royal Challengers Bangalore to grab the championship title.

The Wanderers Stadium also hosted a rugby union test match in April 1980 between South Africa and the South American Jaguars while Johannesburg's normal venue, Ellis Park Stadium, was being redeveloped.

In a T20 played on 11 January 2015, between West Indies and South Africa, West Indies chased a world record score of 236 in any T20 International cricket match.

On 18 January 2015, the Wanderers stadium saw South Africa's AB de Villiers break the 19-year-old record for fastest ODI half-century, previously held by Sanath Jayasuriya, by making 50 off 16 balls against the West Indies. In the same match, he also broke Corey Anderson's fastest ODI century record (held for one year and seven days) by making 100 off 31 deliveries. He finished on 149, caught on the boundary in the final over, scored off 44 balls with a strike rate of 338.63. He also equalled Rohit Sharma's record for most sixes in an innings with 16 sixes.

See also

• List of Test cricket grounds
• List of international cricket centuries at the Wanderers Stadium
• Green Park Stadium

References

Events and tenants
Preceded by Lord's	Cricket World Cup Final Venue 2003	Succeeded by Kensington Oval