Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur: pitch report, records and stats
Jaipur’s IPL first-innings average has gone from 142 in 2011 to 225 in 2026, and the chase wins two matches in three. Here is the pitch report and the full record book at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium.
Jul 23, 2026 · Updated Aug 1, 2026
The Sawai Mansingh Stadium is Jaipur’s international cricket ground, opened in 1969, home to Rajasthan Royals, and the venue for exactly one Test match in its entire history. It holds around 30,000, it has staged 19 ODIs and 68 IPL matches, and it is the ground where a chase almost always beats a defence. This page covers the pitch, the toss call the numbers actually support, and the full record book.
Sawai Mansingh Stadium at a glance
| Location | Jaipur, Rajasthan |
| Opened | 1969 |
| Named after | Sawai Man Singh II, the last ruling Maharaja of Jaipur |
| Capacity | About 30,000 |
| Home teams | Rajasthan Royals (IPL), Rajasthan (domestic) |
| Operator | Rajasthan Cricket Association |
| First international | ODI, India v Pakistan, 2 October 1983 |
| Tests hosted | One, in February 1987 |
Sawai Mansingh Stadium pitch report
Jaipur is the clearest chasing ground in Indian cricket, and unlike most venues with that reputation, the numbers hold up when you split them.
Across the 68 IPL matches played here between 2008 and 2026, the side batting second has won 44 and the side batting first 24. That is 65 per cent to the chase. Take only the 35 matches since 2016 and it barely moves: 21 chases to 14 defences. The ODI record says the same thing in a different competition, 12 wins chasing against seven batting first across 19 matches. Most grounds that get called chasing grounds turn out to be coin tosses once you check. This one does not.
What has changed, and changed violently, is how much you need to score. Here is the IPL first-innings average at this ground by season.
| 2011 | 142.6 |
| 2013 | 154.4 |
| 2019 | 163.4 |
| 2023 | 171.8 |
| 2024 | 187.2 |
| 2025 | 198.3 |
| 2026 | 225.5 |
Across the 64 IPL matches played here before 2026, the first innings averaged 165.5. Across the four played in 2026, it averaged 225.5. Four matches is a small sample and should be read as one, but the four seasons before it climbed in a straight line, so this is a trend arriving at its conclusion rather than a fluke landing out of nowhere.
The clearest illustration: every single one of the seven 220-plus totals in this ground’s IPL history was made in 2026. Not most of them. All of them.
So the practical read is that the old Jaipur, the one where Sohail Tanvir took 6 for 14 and 160 was a working total, is gone. The outfield is quick, the ball comes on under lights, and dew takes whatever grip the spinners had. Bowl first, and expect to need more than you think.
The only Test ever played in Jaipur
India played Pakistan here from 21 to 26 February 1987, and the ground has not staged a Test since. India made 465 for 8 declared and 114 for 2, Pakistan 341, and it was drawn.
It was a strange game. Sunil Gavaskar won the toss, chose to bat and was out to the first ball of the match. The third day was washed out, and Pakistan objected to sawdust that had been put down on the pitch. General Zia-ul-Haq crossed the border to watch the second day as part of his cricket-for-peace diplomacy, which is the detail the match is mostly remembered for now.
ODI records at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium
| Matches played | 19 (since 1983) |
| Highest team total | India 362 for 1 v Australia, 16 October 2013 |
| Lowest team total | England 125 v India, 15 October 2006 |
| Highest individual score | MS Dhoni 183 not out v Sri Lanka, 31 October 2005 |
| Best bowling in an innings | Venkatapathy Raju 4 for 46, November 1994 |
| Highest successful chase | India, chasing 360 v Australia, 16 October 2013 |
Dhoni’s 183 not out is the innings this ground gave cricket. Chasing Sri Lanka on 31 October 2005, India lost Sachin Tendulkar in the first over, Dhoni came in at number three and made 183 from 145 balls with 15 fours and 10 sixes. India won by six wickets with 23 balls to spare. It remains his highest ODI score and the highest any wicketkeeper has made in the format.
The 2013 match against Australia is the other one people remember. Australia made 359 for 5 and lost by nine wickets, India knocking off 360 with 39 balls unused. Rohit Sharma finished on 141 not out, Shikhar Dhawan made 95 and Virat Kohli 100 not out from 52 balls, which was then the fastest ODI hundred by an Indian. Both the highest total and the biggest chase at this ground come from that one night.
One number stands out for being small. The best bowling figures in an ODI here are 4 for 46, which means nobody has taken a five-wicket haul in 19 attempts at this ground.
T20I records at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium
Jaipur has hosted a single men’s T20 international, on 17 November 2021. New Zealand made 164 for 6, Martin Guptill top-scoring with 70, and India chased it with 166 for 5. Ravichandran Ashwin’s 2 for 23 were the best figures. The whole T20I record book here is one match long.
IPL records at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium
| Matches played | 68 (2008 to 2026) |
| Highest team total | Sunrisers Hyderabad 229 for 5, 25 April 2026 |
| Lowest team total | Rajasthan Royals 59, 14 May 2023 |
| Highest individual score | Virat Kohli 113 not out off 72, 6 April 2024 |
| Best bowling in an innings | Sohail Tanvir 6 for 14, 4 May 2008 |
| Most runs at the ground | Ajinkya Rahane, 1,115 |
| Most wickets at the ground | Siddharth Trivedi, 36 |
| Highest successful chase | Sunrisers Hyderabad, chasing 229, 25 April 2026 |
The record total and the record chase are the same match. On 25 April 2026 Rajasthan Royals made 228 for 6 and lost, Sunrisers Hyderabad getting 229 for 5. Before that night the ground record was Punjab Kings’ 219 for 5 from 2025, and the biggest successful chase was Sunrisers’ 217 for 6 in 2023. Both went in one evening.
Rajasthan’s 228 was built on Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s 103 from 37 balls, with 12 sixes and five fours, a hundred reached in 36 deliveries. It was the fastest century of the 2026 season and the third-fastest in IPL history, and it still finished on the losing side.
Tanvir’s 6 for 14 sits at the other end of the ground’s life. On 4 May 2008 he bowled Chennai Super Kings out for 109, taking both openers for ducks inside the first over, and Rajasthan chased it down for the loss of two wickets on their way to winning the inaugural title. It is still the best spell bowled at this ground, and it is second on the all-time IPL list behind Alzarri Joseph’s 6 for 12 for Mumbai Indians in 2019. Only three bowlers have taken six wickets in an IPL match at all, Adam Zampa’s 6 for 19 in 2016 being the third.
Between those two innings sits the whole argument of this page. The same square produced a 6 for 14 and a 36-ball hundred, and the gap between them is not conditions on the day. It is eighteen years of a pitch being asked to do something different.
Quick answers
What is the capacity of the Sawai Mansingh Stadium? About 30,000, which makes it one of the smaller international grounds in India.
Has Jaipur ever hosted a Test match? Once. India drew with Pakistan there in February 1987, and no Test has been played at the ground since.
Is the Sawai Mansingh Stadium a batting or bowling pitch? A batting one now, emphatically. The IPL first-innings average was 142.6 in 2011 and 225.5 in 2026.
Should you bat first or chase in Jaipur? Chase. The side batting second has won 44 of 68 IPL matches here, and 21 of the 35 played since 2016.
What is the highest score at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium? India’s 362 for 1 against Australia in October 2013, across all formats. In the IPL it is Sunrisers Hyderabad’s 229 for 5.
Which IPL team plays at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium? Rajasthan Royals, who have used it since the league began in 2008 and won the first title that year.
Who has scored the most runs at the ground in the IPL? Ajinkya Rahane, with 1,115.
How Jaipur compares
Put next to the other Indian venues, Jaipur is the outlier at both ends. It scores higher now than the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi, where the IPL average has gone from 171.8 to 182.3, and it is a different sport from Chepauk, where twenty-over par has sat flat around 165 for a decade and a half. Its chase bias is stronger than Eden Gardens, which only chases in the IPL and leans the other way in internationals.
For the wider format context, our T20 cricket records guide covers the all-format landmarks, and the Raipur Cricket Stadium records make a useful comparison with one of India’s newer international grounds.