Wellington Regional Stadium (Sky Stadium) pitch report: ODI and T20I records and stats

India play two white-ball matches at Wellington’s Regional Stadium on their 2026 tour of New Zealand: the third T20I on Tuesday 27 October (8pm local, 12:30pm IST) and the second ODI on Saturday 7 November (3pm local, 7:30am IST). They arrive with an odd record at the ground. India have never won a T20I here in normal time, and they have won two of the three ODIs that produced a result.

The stadium has changed its name more often than its pitch. It opened as WestpacTrust Stadium, spent most of its life as Westpac Stadium, became Sky Stadium from 2020 and has been HNRY Stadium since 1 March 2026. Wellingtonians call it the Cake Tin. This pitch report covers every men’s ODI and T20I played at the ground since it opened, with the records, India’s results and what the numbers say about batting first.

Wellington Regional Stadium at a glance

Detail	Information
Current name	HNRY Stadium (from 1 March 2026)
Former names	WestpacTrust Stadium, Westpac Stadium, Sky Stadium (2020 to 2026)
Opened	3 January 2000
Capacity	About 34,500
Owner	Wellington Regional Stadium Trust
Pitch	Drop-in, because the ground also stages rugby and football
First ODI	8 January 2000, New Zealand v West Indies
First T20I	22 December 2006, New Zealand v Sri Lanka
Men’s internationals	33 ODIs scheduled (30 results) and 19 T20Is (17 results, one tie)
Tests	None. Wellington’s Tests are played at the Basin Reserve

That last row matters this summer. India’s first Test of the tour, from 19 November, is at the Basin Reserve, across the city, not here. Several fixture lists simply say “Wellington” for all three of India’s matches in the city.

Sky Stadium pitch report: what the T20I numbers say

The headline record favours the chase. Of the 17 T20Is here that produced a winner, the side batting second has won 10. Read it by era, though, and the picture flips. Since the start of 2018 the side batting first has won six of the ten decided matches, and the toss has been close to worthless: across all 17 results, the captain who won it ended up winning only seven times.

The first-innings average across 18 completed first innings is 163.6, and 174.8 across the nine since 2019. The more useful number is where totals start winning. Sides batting first here have defended a total under 160 once in nine attempts, Australia’s 156 for 6 in March 2021. Totals of 196 or more have been defended four times in five, and the one exception took a last-ball boundary.

Date	First innings	Second innings	Result
22 Dec 2006	NZ 162/8	SL 62/1 (5.5 ov)	SL won by 18 runs (DLS)
27 Feb 2009	India 149/6	NZ 150/5	NZ won by 5 wickets
26 Feb 2010	NZ 118	Aus 119/4	Aus won by 6 wickets
17 Feb 2012	SA 147/6	NZ 148/4	NZ won by 6 wickets
15 Feb 2013	NZ 139/8	Eng 143/0	Eng won by 10 wickets
15 Jan 2014	WI 159/5	NZ 163/6	NZ won by 4 wickets
22 Jan 2016	NZ 196/5	Pak 101	NZ won by 95 runs
22 Jan 2018	Pak 105	NZ 106/3	NZ won by 7 wickets
13 Feb 2018	NZ 196/5	Eng 184/9	NZ won by 12 runs
6 Feb 2019	NZ 219/6	India 139	NZ won by 80 runs
3 Nov 2019	NZ 176/8	Eng 155	NZ won by 21 runs
31 Jan 2020	India 165/8	NZ 165/7	Tied, India won Super Over
3 Mar 2021	Aus 208/4	NZ 144	Aus won by 64 runs
5 Mar 2021	Aus 156/6	NZ 106	Aus won by 50 runs
7 Mar 2021	Aus 142/8	NZ 143/3	NZ won by 7 wickets
18 Nov 2022	India v NZ	No toss	Abandoned, rain
21 Feb 2024	NZ 215/3	Aus 216/4	Aus won by 6 wickets
26 Mar 2025	Pak 128/9	NZ 131/2 (10 ov)	NZ won by 8 wickets
22 Mar 2026	SA 164/5	NZ 145	SA won by 19 runs

So the working par is somewhere between 165 and 175, and 196 has been close to a guarantee. I would not lean too hard on the long-run chase record. Six of those ten chasing wins came before 2015, when 150 was a competitive total almost anywhere.

T20I records at Wellington Regional Stadium

Record	Detail
Highest total	New Zealand 219/6 v India, 2019
Highest successful chase	Australia 216/4 v New Zealand, 2024
Lowest total	Pakistan 101 all out, 2016
Highest individual score	Tim Seifert 97* off 38 v Pakistan, 2025
Best bowling	Ashton Agar 6/30 v New Zealand, 2021
Most runs	Martin Guptill, 453 in 13 innings
Most wickets	Ish Sodhi, 18 in 10 matches

Seifert’s 97 not out came in March 2025, with ten sixes, and it took New Zealand to 131 for 2 in ten overs chasing Pakistan’s 128 for 9. It replaced his own 84 from 43 balls against India in 2019 as the ground’s highest T20I score, so any record page still crediting the 84 is out of date. Jimmy Neesham took 5 for 22 in the same game, the second-best figures here behind Agar’s 6 for 30.

The highest chase is the most recent classic. New Zealand made 215 for 3 in February 2024 and Australia needed four off the final ball; Tim David hit Tim Southee through midwicket for the boundary.

India’s record at the ground

Date	Format	Result
8 Jan 2003	ODI	India won by 2 wickets (NZ 168, India 169/8)
27 Feb 2009	T20I	NZ won by 5 wickets
6 Mar 2009	ODI	No result (India 188/4 in 28.4 overs)
31 Jan 2014	ODI	NZ won by 87 runs
3 Feb 2019	ODI	India won by 35 runs
6 Feb 2019	T20I	NZ won by 80 runs
31 Jan 2020	T20I	Tied, India won the Super Over
18 Nov 2022	T20I	Abandoned without a ball

The 2020 tie is India’s best memory of the place. They made 165 for 8, Shardul Thakur took two wickets in the final over to stop New Zealand short, and India won the Super Over. Two days earlier they had won the previous game in Hamilton the same way. The 2019 ODI was a recovery from 18 for 4: Ambati Rayudu made 90 and Hardik Pandya 45 from 22 balls, and India’s 252 was enough by 35 runs.

ODI records and pitch report

Fifty-over cricket here has thinned out badly. The ground staged 30 ODIs between 2000 and March 2018 and only two since: India in February 2019 and England in November 2025. India’s game on 7 November will be only the third ODI at the stadium since March 2018.

The split is close. Batting first has won 16 of the 30 decided ODIs, chasing 14, and the toss-winner has won 14. The first-innings average across 29 full-length first innings is 237.7. It rises to 265.7 across the 11 since 2015, but the 2015 World Cup, with 393, 341 and 309 among its first innings, carries most of that. The three ODIs since 2018 opened with 234, 252 and 222.

Record	Detail
Highest total	New Zealand 393/6 v West Indies, 2015 World Cup quarter-final
Highest successful chase	Sri Lanka 312/1 v England, 2015
Lowest total	England 89, 2002
Highest individual score	Martin Guptill 237* off 163 v West Indies, 2015
Best bowling	Tim Southee 7/33 v England, 2015
Most runs	Kane Williamson, 473 in 9 innings
Most wickets	Tim Southee, 25 in 9 matches

Guptill’s 237 not out in the 2015 quarter-final is still the highest score in any men’s World Cup match, and New Zealand won by 143 runs. Southee’s 7 for 33 against England a month earlier remains the best ODI return by a New Zealand bowler; England were all out for 123 and New Zealand knocked the runs off in 12.2 overs.

On the surface itself, former New Zealand coach Mike Hesson has described the drop-in pitch as having an unusual bounce that visiting players take a while to adjust to. The figures back up the idea of a home advantage in ODIs: New Zealand have won 17 and lost 11 here. In T20Is it is weaker, 10 wins, 7 defeats and a tie.

Quick answers

Is Sky Stadium the same as HNRY Stadium? Yes. Both are the Wellington Regional Stadium. Sky’s naming deal ran from 2020, and HNRY took over the name on 1 March 2026.

Is Wellington Regional Stadium good for batting? Reasonably, and more so lately. Nine of the 18 completed T20I first innings have reached 160, and since 2019 the first-innings average is 174.8.

Should you bat or chase? The all-time T20I record says chase, 10 wins to seven. Since 2018 it is six to four the other way. In ODIs it is close to even.

Has India won a T20I at Wellington Regional Stadium? Not in normal time. They lost in 2009 and 2019, tied in 2020 before winning the Super Over, and saw the 2022 game washed out.

Where is the India v New Zealand Test in Wellington? At the Basin Reserve, from 19 November 2026. The Regional Stadium has never hosted a Test. India’s other NZ grounds this tour are covered in our Hagley Oval, Eden Park, Seddon Park and Bay Oval pitch reports.

Featured photo: Marty Melville / AFP

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