The 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) had to move to UAE after a gap of 6 years due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, all the matches of IPL 2020 will be taking place across 3 popular venues in the country – Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Sharjah between September 19 to November 10. Among the three venues, the Sharjah Cricket Stadium will host just 12 matches, the fixtures for the play-offs and the final are yet to be revealed by the BCCI.
On the other hand, Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dubai will be hosting 20 matches in the league stages, the second-most after Dubai international cricket stadium which will be hosting as many as 24 games.
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Sharjah Cricket Stadium has had the experience of hosting IPL matches as some of the games took place when the initial part of the tournament was shifted to UAE in 2014. However, this year, it’s going to be different as empty stands will not be a great sight for the players at the 18,000-strong venue. It remains to be seen if the authorities will be deciding to allow fans during the latter half of IPL.
Unlike Dubai and Abu Dhabi, Sharjah Cricket Stadium has been one of the oldest stadiums in UAE. The first-ever international match at the stadium was an ODI that took place between Pakistan and Sri Lanka in 1984. Those tow team also went on to play the first international T20I in March 2013, while Pakistan locked horns with West Indies in the first-ever venue Test match at the venue in January 2002.
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In terms of the last five T20Is at the venue, three times the team which was defending the target had managed to win the match while in the other two the teams which were chasing the target won. Out of those three games when the team won while defending the target, the winning team had lost the toss two times. The average first innings total was as low as 134 while the average score for the second innings is 102 and interestingly.
IPL 2020 fixtures in Sharjah Cricket Stadium
- Tuesday, September 22: RR v CSK – 7:30 pm IST
- Sunday, September 27: RR v KXIP – 7:30 pm IST
- Saturday, October 3: DC v KKR – 7:30 pm IST
- Sunday, October 4: MI v SRH – 3:30 pm IST
- Friday, October 9: RR v DC – 7:30 pm IST
- Monday, October 12: RCB v KKR – 7:30 pm IST
- Thursday, October 15: RCB v KXIP – 7:30 pm IST
- Saturday, October 17: DC v CSK – 7:30 pm IST
- Friday, October 23: CSK v MI – 7:30 pm IST
- Monday, October 26: KKR v KXIP – 7:30 pm IST
- Saturday, October 31: RCB v SRH – 7:30 pm IST
- Tuesday, November 3: SRH v MI – 7:30 pm IST
