Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru: pitch report, records and stats

A par first-innings total in an IPL match at the Chinnaswamy Stadium is about 190. That is roughly what the rest of the league averages too, which is the first thing worth saying about a ground whose reputation is that it breaks scoring records for fun. Bengaluru is a good batting surface. It is no longer an outlier, and the way it produces runs is not the way most pitch reports describe.

What follows is worked out from the ball-by-ball record of all 104 IPL matches played at the ground between 2008 and the end of the 2026 season, plus the full Test, ODI and T20I aggregates. Where a number covers only part of the ground’s history, the article says so.

Chinnaswamy Stadium: the basics

Location	Mahatma Gandhi Road, Shivaji Nagar, Bengaluru, Karnataka
Foundation stone	1969; first-class cricket from the 1972-73 season
Capacity	Listed at 40,000 seats; match-day capacity for IPL 2026 certified at about 33,000
Owner	Karnataka State Cricket Association and the Government of Karnataka
Operated by	Karnataka State Cricket Association
Ends	Anil Kumble End and Rahul Dravid End
Floodlights	Installed for the 1996 World Cup
First Test	22-27 November 1974, India v West Indies
First ODI	September 1982, India v Sri Lanka
First T20I	25 December 2012, India v Pakistan
Home teams	Karnataka; Royal Challengers Bengaluru, in the IPL and the WPL
Matches staged	25 Tests, 31 ODIs, 11 T20Is, 104 IPL games

The ground sits in the middle of the city rather than on its edge, which is unusual for an Indian international venue and is the reason its crowd management has been a recurring subject. It is also the home of the National Cricket Academy, which has been based here since 2000.

Is Chinnaswamy still India’s highest-scoring ground?

Not by the numbers. Since 2023, the IPL first-innings average at the Chinnaswamy Stadium is 190.4 across 24 completed matches. Across the rest of the league over the same period it is 189.7 from 258 matches. The gap is seven tenths of a run.

The ground’s reputation was earned in a different era, and the rest of the league has caught up faster than Bengaluru has moved. Set against the eight other established IPL venues, the picture looks like this:

Ground	First innings, all-time	Since 2023	Shift
Rajiv Gandhi Intl, Hyderabad	170.2	197.1	+26.9
Wankhede, Mumbai	173.4	196.7	+23.3
Eden Gardens, Kolkata	170.9	195.7	+24.8
Sawai Mansingh, Jaipur	169.3	194.5	+25.2
Arun Jaitley, Delhi	173.2	193.6	+20.4
Narendra Modi, Ahmedabad	185.1	191.6	+6.5
Chinnaswamy, Bengaluru	176.0	190.4	+14.4
Ekana, Lucknow	176.2	176.2	0.0
MA Chidambaram, Chennai	165.9	172.7	+6.7

Six of the eight other grounds in that table now average more in the first innings than Bengaluru does, and five of them have inflated by more than 20 runs since 2023 while Chinnaswamy has gone up by 14. One caveat belongs on the table: the Chinnaswamy sample since 2023 is 24 matches, smaller than most of the others, because the ground staged no IPL cricket at all in 2020, 2021 or 2022. The 2020 season was staged entirely in the UAE, the second leg of 2021 went there too, and the 2022 league phase was confined to Mumbai and Pune.

Where the runs actually come from

The interesting part is not the total, it is the shape of the innings. Splitting the IPL scoring at Bengaluru since 2023 into the three phases, and setting it against the rest of the league over the same seasons:

Phase	Chinnaswamy	Rest of the IPL
Overs 1-6	9.18 an over	9.50 an over
Overs 7-15	9.51 an over	8.84 an over
Overs 16-20	11.13 an over	10.83 an over

Bengaluru’s powerplay is slower than the league’s. That is the opposite of what almost every preview of a match here will tell you. What the ground actually does is refuse to slow down in the middle, where the league drops to 8.84 an over and Chinnaswamy stays at 9.51. Two thirds of a run an over across nine overs is worth about six runs an innings, and it arrives in the phase where a captain has his least threatening bowlers on.

The short boundaries show up too, but not in the way the phrase implies. Over the same period:

Measure	Chinnaswamy	Rest of the IPL
Sixes per 100 balls	8.71	7.58
Fours per 100 balls	13.05	13.46
Share of runs in boundaries	64.2%	62.8%
Run rate	9.76	9.49

Fifteen per cent more sixes, and slightly fewer fours. The ground is not producing more boundaries than the league. It is converting shots that clear the infield and stop at the rope elsewhere into shots that clear the rope here. The net effect on the run rate is about a quarter of a run an over, which is real and much smaller than the reputation.

Two hundred is a wall at Chinnaswamy

Across all 104 IPL matches the chasing side has won 54 and the side batting first 43. Four produced no result and three were settled on Duckworth-Lewis. On that split alone you would field first.

Filter for the totals that matter and it reverses completely. Twenty-four times a side has posted 200 or more batting first at this ground. Eighteen of those were defended. Six were chased down. And the highest successful chase in the ground’s IPL history is 213, by Lucknow Super Giants against Royal Challengers Bengaluru on 10 April 2023.

That is the number worth carrying into a match here. A venue that has produced a 287, a 263, a 262 and a 250 has never seen anyone chase more than 213. The big scores at Chinnaswamy get made, and then they get defended, because a target that requires ten an over from the start removes the middle-overs advantage that the phase table shows is the ground’s real gift to a batting side.

Chinnaswamy Stadium IPL records

Highest team total	Sunrisers Hyderabad 287 for 3 v Royal Challengers Bengaluru, 15 April 2024
Highest match aggregate	549 runs in that same match; Bengaluru replied with 262 for 7 and lost by 25
Second highest total	Royal Challengers Bangalore 263 for 5 v Pune Warriors, 23 April 2013
Lowest team total	Royal Challengers Bangalore 82 all out v Kolkata Knight Riders, 18 April 2008
Highest successful chase	Lucknow Super Giants 213 for 9 v Royal Challengers Bengaluru, 10 April 2023
Highest individual score	Chris Gayle 175 not out off 66 balls, 23 April 2013
Best bowling figures	Samuel Badree 4 for 9 v Mumbai Indians, 14 April 2017
Most runs at the ground	Virat Kohli 3,448
Most wickets at the ground	Yuzvendra Chahal 54
Home record	Royal Challengers have won 47 of 94 completed matches here

The 82 all out and the 158 that beat it came on the same evening, in the first IPL match ever played. Brendon McCullum made 158 not out off 73 balls for Kolkata and Bengaluru were bowled out for 82 in 16 overs. Kohli’s 3,448 runs is the largest tally any batter has made at a single ground in the IPL. The next best anywhere is Rohit Sharma’s 2,632 at the Wankhede, and the next best here is AB de Villiers on 1,973.

Test records at Chinnaswamy

Twenty-five Tests have been played here since 1974, of which 16 produced a result and nine were drawn. The ground has swung between the two extremes of Test cricket and did both inside 20 years.

Highest team total	India 626 v Pakistan, December 2007
Lowest completed total	India 46 v New Zealand, 16 October 2024
Highest individual score	Younis Khan 267 for Pakistan, 2005
Best innings bowling	Nathan Lyon 8 for 50 for Australia, 2017
Most runs at the ground	Sachin Tendulkar 869 in 16 innings
Most wickets at the ground	Anil Kumble 41 in 16 innings

The 2007 Test against Pakistan is the high-water mark: India were 61 for 4 before Sourav Ganguly made 239 and Yuvraj Singh 169 in a stand of 300, and the match still ended in a draw with 1,163 runs scored in the two first innings. Seventeen years later India chose to bat on the same square, were bowled out for 46 by New Zealand, and set a new low for a home Test innings. Matt Henry took 5 for 15. They made 462 second time round and lost anyway, by eight wickets.

ODI and T20I records

Thirty-one ODIs have been played here between 1982 and 2023, along with 11 T20Is between 2012 and 2026.

Highest ODI total	India 410 for 4 v Netherlands, 12 November 2023
Second highest	New Zealand 401 for 6 v Pakistan, 4 November 2023
Highest successful ODI chase	Ireland 329 for 7 v England, 2 March 2011
Highest individual ODI score	Rohit Sharma 209 off 158 balls v Australia, 2 November 2013
Most ODI runs at the ground	Sachin Tendulkar 534
Most ODI wickets at the ground	Zaheer Khan 14
T20I run rate at the ground	8.29 an over across 11 matches

The two highest ODI totals here were made eight days apart during the 2023 World Cup, which is a fair summary of what this ground does when the surface is fresh and the outfield is quick. The Ireland chase is the better story: Kevin O’Brien made 113 off 63 balls and Ireland got past England’s 327 with five balls to spare, three days after England had tied with India on the same square. The T20I against Afghanistan on 17 January 2024 is the only international match of any format decided by a second Super Over. India made 212 for 4, Afghanistan matched it exactly, the first Super Over finished 16 apiece, and Ravi Bishnoi settled the second in three deliveries.

Every T20I at the Chinnaswamy Stadium

Eleven T20Is in 14 years is a thin record for a ground this size, and it reads differently from the IPL one. Of the eight that produced a winner, the chasing side won five. India have played nine of the 11 and their record is three wins, three defeats, one tie and two washouts.

Date	Match	Batting first	Batting second	Result
25 Dec 2012	India v Pakistan	India 133/9	Pakistan 134/5	Pakistan won by 5 wickets
20 Mar 2016	Sri Lanka v West Indies	Sri Lanka 122/9	West Indies 127/3	West Indies won by 7 wickets
21 Mar 2016	Australia v Bangladesh	Bangladesh 156/5	Australia 157/7	Australia won by 3 wickets
23 Mar 2016	India v Bangladesh	India 146/7	Bangladesh 145/9	India won by 1 run
1 Feb 2017	India v England	India 202/6	England 127	India won by 75 runs
27 Feb 2019	India v Australia	India 190/4	Australia 194/3	Australia won by 7 wickets
22 Sep 2019	India v South Africa	India 134/9	South Africa 140/1	South Africa won by 9 wickets
19 Jun 2022	India v South Africa	India 28/2 (3.3 ov)	Did not bat	No result, rain
3 Dec 2023	India v Australia	India 160/8	Australia 154/8	India won by 6 runs
17 Jan 2024	India v Afghanistan	India 212/4	Afghanistan 212/6	Tied, India won the second Super Over
17 Oct 2026	India v West Indies	India 118/5 (7.4 ov)	Did not bat	No result, rain

The two washouts are the same story told twice. In June 2022 the fifth T20I against South Africa was a decider with the series at 2-2, and rain ended it after 3.3 overs of India’s innings. In October 2026 the fifth T20I against West Indies was a decider with the series at 2-2, and rain ended it again.

The 2025 crowd crush and the return in 2026

On 4 June 2025 a crowd surge outside the stadium during Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s IPL title celebrations killed 11 people and injured dozens more. Most were teenagers and young adults who had come for the victory parade. The ground was ruled unfit for large gatherings while the Justice D’Cunha Committee investigated, and it lost its place on the IPL schedule and its ICC Women’s World Cup fixtures.

It was cleared to reopen in March 2026 after the committee’s recommendations were implemented: six new entry points, widened gates, holding areas built on the old National Cricket Academy site, eighty per cent of tickets sold online, QR-code entry in place of physical ticket collection, and a certified match-day capacity of roughly 33,000 rather than the stadium’s listed 40,000.

Bengaluru duly hosted five IPL matches in 2026, all Royal Challengers home games, starting with the season opener against Sunrisers Hyderabad on 28 March. The playoffs did not come back with them. Qualifier 1 went to Dharamsala, the Eliminator and Qualifier 2 to New Chandigarh, and the final to Ahmedabad, where Royal Challengers beat Gujarat Titans by five wickets to win a second title in two years.

International cricket came back on 17 October 2026, for the first men’s international at the ground since the New Zealand Test of October 2024. It was the deciding fifth T20I against West Indies. Rain cut it to nine overs a side, West Indies chose to bowl, and India reached 118 for 5 in 7.4 overs, with Ishan Kishan making 30 off 10 balls, before more rain ended the match without West Indies batting. The series was shared 2-2. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who bowls for Royal Challengers here in the IPL, was in India’s XI for his first T20I since November 2022, but the game ended before he got to bowl.

The short version

Bat first if you win the toss and think you can get near 200, because 200 has been defended here three times in four and nobody has ever chased more than 213. Expect a normal powerplay and an unusually quick middle period. Expect sixes rather than more boundaries. And treat any pitch report that calls this the highest-scoring ground in India as a description of 2016 rather than of now.

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