The Oval (also known as the Kennington Oval and, due to sponsorship reasons, the Kia Oval) is a cricket ground in London, England, it was established in 1845 and has a capacity of 23,500. International cricket has been played at the ground since 1880, when England played Australia in the first Test match staged in England. [1] One Day Internationals (ODIs) have also been played at the ground, the first of these was in 1973 between England and the West Indies. 178 Test centuries have been scored at the Oval along with 39 ODI centuries. [2] [3]
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The Englishman W. G. Grace scored the first Test century at the ground, Grace made 152 against Australia in 1880. In 1938 Len Hutton, another Englishman, broke the record for the highest individual Test innings. Hutton, with his score of 364, surpassed Wally Hammond's previous record of 336 not out. Hutton's innings was the only Test triple century scored at the Oval until Hashim Amla's treble in July 2012, and is still the highest by an Englishman at any ground. [4] [5] Herbert Sutcliffe is the only man to have scored five Test centuries at the ground, while Hammond, Hutton, David Gower and Kevin Pietersen have all scored four centuries. The most centuries scored by an overseas player at the ground is three, which was achieved by the South African Bruce Mitchell and Australian Steve Smith. [2]
The first ODI century scored at the Oval was in 1973 by the West Indian Roy Fredericks, who made 105 against England. England's Ben Stokes holds the record for the highest score at the ground, scoring 182 against New Zealand in 2023. Two players have scored three ODI centuries at the ground – England's Marcus Trescothick and India's Shikhar Dhawan – however no other batsman has scored more than one. [3]
