Mangaung Oval, previously known as Springbok Park, Chevrolet Park, Goodyear Park, and OUTsurance Oval, is a
cricket oval in
Bloemfontein,
South Africa. It is currently used mostly for
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
matches. It is the home of the
Knights cricket team
The ITEC Knights are a Division 1 cricket team representing the province of Free State in South African domestic competitions. The Knights take part in the CSA 4-Day Series first-class competition, the Momentum One-Day Cup and the Mzansi ...
. The stadium holds 20,000 people and opened in 1989.
History
The ground hosted its first one-day international in December 1992 when
South Africa cruised to an eight-wicket victory over
India. In October 1999 it was accorded full Test status with the visit of
Zimbabwe.
Early in 1994 at the ground
Hansie Cronje smashed 251 with 28 fours and six sixes against the touring
Australians. The ground played its part in South African Test history when, fittingly,
Allan Donald
Allan Anthony Donald (born 20 October 1966) is a South African former cricketer who is also the current bowling coach of Bangladesh national cricket team. Often nicknamed 'White Lightning' due to his lightning quick bowling, he is considered ...
, who as a
Free State cricketer played many times at the ground, became the first South African to capture 300 Test wickets during the First Test against
New Zealand in November 2000.
[
In March 2003 Feiko Kloppenburg and ]Klaas-Jan van Noortwijk
Klaas-Jan Jeroen van Noortwijk (born 10 July 1970) is a former Dutch cricketer. He is a right-handed batsman and a right-arm medium-pace bowler.
Domestic career
He started playing cricket at VOC in Rotterdam when he was 8 years old. A back inju ...
of The Netherlands scored a century in the same match as Netherlands posted their only win in 2003 Cricket World Cup
The 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup was the eighth Cricket World Cup, organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was co-hosted by South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya from 9 February to 23 March 2003. This edition of the World Cup was the f ...
against Namibia.
On 7 March 2007, Irish vocal pop band Westlife held a concert for The Love Tour supporting their album '' The Love Album''.
This was the stadium where Colin Ingram scored his maiden ODI
ODI may refer to:
* Object Design, Incorporated, a defunct database software company
* One Day International, cricket match
* Open Data Institute, a UK not-for-profit company promoting open data
* Open Data-Link Interface, an implementation of th ...
century
A century is a period of 100 years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c.
A centennial or ...
in his first international match, the first South African to score a century on his ODI debut.[
A naming rights arrangement saw the ground renamed Goodyear Park due to sponsorship by the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company until the 2007/08 season when it was renamed the OUTsurance Oval. It has since been renamed again as Mangaung Oval.
Zimbabwe are scheduled to play South Africa in a one-off test in March 2024.
]
See also
* List of Test cricket grounds
* List of international cricket five-wicket hauls on the ground
References
{{Reflist
External links
Official ground page
Cricket grounds in South Africa
Buildings and structures in Bloemfontein
2003 Cricket World Cup stadiums
Multi-purpose stadiums in South Africa
Sports venues in the Free State (province)