Newlands Cricket Ground

Newlands Cricket Ground in Cape Town is a South African cricket ground. It's the home of the Cape Cobras, who play in the SuperSport Series, MTN Domestic Championship and Standard Bank Pro20 competitions. It is also a venue for Test matches. Newlands is regarded as one of the most beautiful cricket grounds in the world, being overlooked by Table Mountain and Devil's Peak. It is close to Newlands Stadium, which is a rugby union and football venue.

The ground hosted its first Test match in March 1889 when England defeated South Africa by an innings and 202 runs. As of January 2011, there have been 46 Test matches played at the ground of which South Africa has won 17, their opponents 19 and 10 which ended in a draw. The last team besides Australia to beat South Africa there was New Zealand, in 1961[1].

The first One Day International played at the ground was in December 1992 when South Africa beat India by 6 wickets. As of January 2011, there have been 35 One-day Internationals played at the ground including five in the 2003 Cricket World Cup. South Africa has won 25 of its games there and lost 4 (India being the most recent opposition victor in 2011)[2].

Between 1991 and 1997 numerous changes were made to the ground. Large portions of the grass embankments were replaced by pavilions increasing the seating capacity to 25,000.

Newlands is one of the few cricket grounds in South Africa that tends to favour spinners. Most grounds tend to favour pacemen or batsmen, but the Western Cape has had a history of having very good spinners, a recent example being Paul Adams.

The ground has also hosted exhibition matches in Australian rules football. In 1998, a crowd of 10,123 saw the Brisbane Lions play Fremantle.