Captain Roop Singh Stadium is located in Gwalior, which is the northern part of Madhya Pradesh. It has had floodlights since 1996 and its two ends are referred to as Pavilion End and Railway End. Its curator is Ajay Sahastrabuddhe. The stadium has been named after Captain Roop Singh who won gold medals for hockey at the 1932 and 1936 Olympics. It started off being a hockey stadium but was changed to cricket during the 1980s. Till date the stadium has only been allowed to hold one day matches. The first international game here was held on January 22, 1988 between India and West Indies and predictably enough the Windies hammered India, the semi finalists of the previous World Cup, by 73 runs.
This match is also memorable for the fact that it saw the one day debut of leggie Narendra Hirwani who himself is from Madhya Pradesh. The floodlights in this ground were installed so that it could be prepared for the 1996 World Cup match between West Indies and hosts India. The Central Indian stadium also held another memorable encounter – this time a first class match – with the first and only day and night final of the Ranji Trophy in 1996.
The match was contested by eternal first class rivals Delhi and Mumbai. Mumbai managed to secure the trophy thanks to the lead it had taken in the first innings. The pitch at this stadium is pretty much like the other venue in India – always favoring batsmen. Till date, the ground has hosted 10 one day matches with the last one coming on February 24, 2010 when India went up against South Africa. In 8 of the 10 matches in question the team that batted first was able to score more than 250, which can be described as a middling score. The ground is also well known for the fact that a certain Sachin Tendulkar got his first double century in ODI cricket over here. That match also saw the highest total of this ground – 401/3
As far as the visiting teams playing on this ground are concerned West Indies has the maximum victories, 2, followed by Pakistan and Kenya with one each. Kenya in fact defeated India here on May 28, 1998 by a not so negligible margin of 69 runs. Sachin Tendulkar holds the record for maximum runs at this ground with 529 runs in 9 matches and Javagal Srinath leads the wicket tally with 10 wickets from 4 matches.
