Allan Border Field

File:Stuart Law stand 1a.jpg

The Stuart Law stand at Allan Border Field, Brisbane, Australia.

Allan Border Field is a small cricket ground in the Brisbane suburb of Albion in Queensland. The Australian Cricket Academy has been based at the oval since 2004 using it as a base for the development of elite cricketers throughout Australia.

It was formerly known as Neumann Oval and was home to Fortitude Valley Diehards rugby league team from 1909 until 1995. The oval was named for Fred "Firpo" Neumann, Valley's club captain (and later president) and Queensland and Australian representative footballer. Queensland Cricket purchased the ground not long after Valley's relocation and named it in honour of former Australian cricket captain Allan Border. The ground is used as a training facility for the Queensland Bulls and more recently the Australian cricket team. The capacity of the ground is 6,300, which is much smaller than The Gabba.

History

One of the first recorded first-class matches held at the ground was played between Queensland and a touring Pakistan team in 1999 during which, both Matthew Hayden and Stuart Law made centuries as Queensland won the match by 112 runs.

The venue hosted Australian domestic and List A matches in the early-2000s, including the 1999/00 Pura Cup Final but, in later years, was restricted to tour matches between Queensland and international teams with The Gabba becoming the primary home of the Queensland Bulls.

In 2009, Pakistan A won in a three-match one-day series against Australia A but, lost the subsequent Twenty20 match.

Sheffield Shield was re-introduced in 2010 with a match played between Queensland and South Australia and more games have been played since, including a match in 2013 between Queensland and Tasmania during which Jordan Silk made a century.

In 2014, two four-day matches were played between Australia A and a touring India A team. Naman Ojha made a double-century and Mitchell Marsh, who scored 211, and Sam Whiteman, who scored 174, put on 371 runs for the eighth wicket, an Australian record and the second-highest eighth-wicket partnership recorded. Both matches resulted in a draw.

On June 23, 2014, it was announced that the field would jointly play host to the initial rounds of the newly sponsored Matador BBQs One-Day Cup in October. In the first match, Josh Hazlewood took 7 for 36 against South Australia, the third-best bowling performance in Australian domestic one-day history and the best by a New South Welshman. Four days later, Jonathan Wells made the second-highest score in List A cricket at Allan Border Field, becoming just the fourth batsman to make a century in List A cricket at the ground. In the same match Sam Rainbird took figures of 5 for 29. However, in the last match, Queenslander Joe Burns made 115 against South Australia in a 94-run victory, passing Wells' score and becoming the fifth batsman to make a century in List A cricket at the ground.

On July 8, 2015, Victorian all-rounder Marcus Stoinis hit part-time medium-pacer Brendan Smith for six sixes in an over on his way to 121 from 73 balls while playing for the National Performance Squad in a 50-over match against a National Indigenous Squad. Smith, captain of the New South Wales under-17s, also sent down a wide meaning his one over of the match went for 37 runs. The game was a non-sanctioned practice match.

Records

First Class cricket

This table contains the top five highest scores made by a batsman in a single innings.

Season	Player	Team	Score	Opponent
2005/06	Marlon Samuels	West Indies	257	Queensland
2002/03	Martin Love	Queensland	250	England XI
2000/01	Ricky Ponting	Tasmania	233	Queensland
2014	Naman Ojha	India A	219*	Australia A
2014	Mitchell Marsh	Australia A	211	India A

Last Updated 10 July 2014.

List A cricket

This table contains the top five highest scores made by a batsman in List A matches.

Season	Player	Team	Score	Opponent
2009	Tim Paine	Australia A	134	Pakistan A
2014	Joe Burns	Queensland	115	South Australia
2014	Jonathan Wells	Tasmania	110	Victoria
2009	Umar Akmal	Pakistan A	104	Australia A
2009	Khalid Latif	Pakistan A	100	Australia A

Last Updated 15 July 2015.

National Cricket Centre

Cricket Australia officially opened the new National Cricket Centre on November 12, 2013. The new facility replaced the Centre of Excellence. The National Cricket Centre features state-of-the-art indoor and outdoor training facilities and equipment in order to enhance the development of Australian cricketers. The street that the Allan Border Field is on was also renamed in honour of former Australian captain Greg Chappell.

External links

• Austadiums article on Allan Border Field