Eden Gardens is a cricket stadium in Kolkata, India, established in 1864. It is the home venue of the Bengal cricket team and the Indian Premier League franchise Kolkata Knight Riders.
Currently, it has a capacity of 68,000 spectators. It is the largest cricket stadium in India and Asia and the second-largest cricket stadium in the world and is often considered as India's home of cricket.
History
The name ‘Eden Gardens’ was kept by its makers inspired from ‘The Bible’. Eden Gardens was named after Emily and Fanny Eden, sisters of the erstwhile Governor-General, Lord Auckland in 1864.
It was one of the first cricket stadiums in India where flood lights were installed to play the day night cricket matches. The gigantic electronic scoreboard that the stadium has is also one of its kinds in the country. The stadium hosted its first Test in 1934, with India hosting England.
Major Matches
The first final of the Cricket World Cup which was hosted outside The Lord's was at this majestic venue.
Anil Kumble picked up six wickets for just 12 runs in the finals of the 1993 Hero Cup against West Indies, to win the trophy..
In 2001, India pulled a famous victory against Australia, when VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid put a 376-run stand at Edens after India trailed by more than 250 runs in first innings. While Laxman scored 281 runs, Dravid hit 180 to rescue India. On the fifth day, India bowled out Australia, to bring an end to the 16-match winning streak of Aussie skipper Steve Waugh.
In November 2014, Indian batsman Rohit Sharma hit a mammoth 264 runs at this very venue against Sri Lanka. It is the highest individual score in the ODIs.
Controversies
There have been various instances of controversies at the prevalent Eden Gardens. In a match between India & West Indies in 1966-67, trouble at Eden Gardens started outside the ground after local authorities had sold more tickets than there were seats.
During the 1996 World Cup semi-final against Sri lanka, chasing 252, India slumped to 120 for 8 after a dramatic collapse during which seven wickets fell for 22. That proved too much for the capacity crowd, who began hurling bottles on the field and setting fires in the stands
Recent Matches
The stadium hosted the 250th home test for India in 2016. On September 21, 2017, Kuldeep Yadav became the third bowler for India to take a hat-trick in an ODI after Chetan Sharma and Kapil Dev, when he took a hatrick against Australia.
