Dharamsala stadium boundary length: The HPCA Cricket stadium in Dharamsala has one of the most bounciest pitches in India.
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During the second T20I of the ongoing Sri Lanka’s tour of India at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) stadium in Dharamsala, Sri Lanka after being invited to bat first, have posted a challenging total of 183/5 in their allotted 20 Overs.
The openers- Pathum Nissanka and Danushka Gunathilaka, were welcomed with some excellent display of seam and swing bowling from India’s experienced duo of Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Credit to the Lankan batters though, that despite some tough questions posed before them, they didn’t throw away their wicket in desperation to up the ante, and stitched together a 67-run stand for the first wicket.
Keeping wickets in hand did pay dividends in the end, as Pathum Nissanka (75 off 53) and skipper Dasun Shanaka (47* off 19) together smashed 58 runs off 26 deliveries for the 5th wicket to post a challenging total before the strong Indian batting line-up. Shanaka smashed 23 runs off the final Over of the innings bowled by Harshal Patel to boost the confidence of his bowlers, as they take on the field with a series loss on the cards.
Dharamsala stadium boundary length
As mentioned above, the HPCA ground has one of the most bounciest pitches in the country, with a decent amount of grass cover.
The chief curator of the pitch- Sunil Chauhan, in 2011, a year after the stadium hosted its maiden IPL match, stated the ‘Bermuda Grass’ as the reason for the sporty nature of the pitch.
Absolutely stunning stadium this. #Dharamsala
— Subhayan Chakraborty (@CricSubhayan) February 26, 2022
“The grass used is very important. Like elsewhere in the region, like Mohali, we use Bermuda grass. The soil we bring from Ludhiana is tested at Palampur (near here) for its contents of clay, silt, coarse sand and fine sand. “Usually 40 per cent clay content is considered good to make a bouncy pitch. We have about 64 per cent. In comparison, the pitch at Perth has 75 per cent!”, remarked Chauhan during an interaction with ‘The Hindu’ in 2011.
As far as the boundary length is concerned, at 70 yards, it is bigger than the minimum requirement of 65 yards (59.43 m) on either side of the pitch.
While the Midwicket to Midwicket boundary area covers a distance of 140 yards (128 meters), it is 120 yards (109.72 m) from one sightscreen to the other.
Having said that, the boundary length may vary across either side (off-side and on-side) of the center pitch, given that matches may be played on different pitches situated adjacent to each other of the center one.
