Green Park in Kanpur will host India’s 500th Test during New Zealand’s tour of India later this year. The venue will only be hosting its first Test in seven years, after Sri Lanka’s defeat to India there in 2009. It was scheduled to host a Test during the Border-Gavaskar series in 2013, but lost that opportunity owing to concerns over poor facilities.
> Read: Green Park to host India's 500th Test
It has hosted 21 Tests so far, its debut stretching way back to 1952. India has won six of these Tests; the last defeat India suffered here was against West Indies in 1983. This defeat was one of only three suffered by the home team here.
New Zealand has drawn one and lost the other of two matches it has played here. It staved off defeat in a contest dominated by India in the only drawn Test of the three-match series in 1976. Spinners Bishan Singh Bedi, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar and S. Venkataraghavan were India’s chief contributors with the ball, while Gundappa Viswanath scored a century. New Zealand’s opener Glenn Turner also registered a three-figure score to lead his team’s resistance against the Indian onslaught.
During the 1999-00 season, New Zealand played the second Test of the three-match series here. In a low-scoring contest, India posted a 10-wicket victory, helped majorly by a 10-wicket match haul from leggie Anil Kumble.
Viswanath is the most prolific run-getter at Green Park, with 776 runs in 12 innings at an average of 86.22, which includes a century on debut against Australia in 1969. Kapil Dev is the highest wicket-taker, with 25 wickets. Kumble, the second highest-wicket taker, trails Kapil by only four wickets, having played only three Tests, four fewer than Kapil.
But the best bowling performance came from Jasu Patel against Australia in 1959, nine for 69 and five for 55, for match figures of 14 for 124!
Faoud Bacchus of the West Indies is the top Test-scorer in Kanpur with 250 in the 1979 Test. For India, the top-score is Mohammad Azharuddin's 199, made against Sri Lanka in 1986. In three Tests here, Azhar has an average of 181.00!
The highest total for India is 676 for seven against Sri Lanka in 1986 and the lowest 121 versus England in 1952. For the visitors, the highest is England's 559 for eight declared in 1964 and the lowest Australia's 105 in 1959.
The pitch is largely characterised as spin friendly, with the ball having a tendency to keep low and be slow. It has also been conducive to run-making, evidenced in run gluts by teams in the past.
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