Architect F. Kenneth Milne designed the scoreboard, and it began service in 1911. More than a century later it is one of the world's last manually operated scoreboards still in regular use at a major cricket ground. During play, a crew works inside its four levels, hauling number plates into place to track every run, wicket, and bowling change in the intricate detail the old boards were built for. There is a charming constraint to the thing: names are limited to ten letters, so longer surnames get truncated or swapped for nicknames on the board. When the rest of the Oval was rebuilt between 2012 and 2014, the scoreboard, the grassy Northern Mound, and the Moreton Bay figs were deliberately left untouched, the past anchoring the new.

In the summer of 1932, Adelaide Oval became the flashpoint of cricket's ugliest controversy. England's bowlers were aiming fast, short deliveries at the bodies of Australian batsmen, a tactic the press dubbed Bodyline. When Australia's captain Bill Woodfull was struck over the heart and wicketkeeper Bert Oldfield had his skull fractured by a ball from Harold Larwood, the crowd of nearly 51,000 turned dangerous. Mounted police patrolled the boundary on the third day to keep order. The series strained relations between Australia and England to the point of diplomatic cables. It remains one of the most studied moments in the sport, and it happened here, in front of a record cricket crowd that nearly boiled over into a riot.

Few grounds carry as much cricket history per square metre. In 1931, Don Bradman scored 299 not out against South Africa here, for decades the highest Test score made at the Oval. The first Test match on the ground was played in 1884, when England beat Australia, and the venue has hosted firsts ever since: the first day-night Test in 2015 against New Zealand, the first day-night Ashes Test in 2017. In 1992 the West Indies beat Australia by a single run, the narrowest victory in the history of Test cricket, decided when a bouncer brushed a glove. In December 2025, a record cricket crowd of 56,298 packed in for the opening day of an Ashes Test, part of more than 223,000 spectators over five days who watched Australia retain the urn.

The Oval has never belonged to one sport. Australian rules football was played here from 1877, and the ground's record crowd of any kind, 62,543, came for the 1965 SANFL Grand Final when Port Adelaide beat Sturt by three points. After decades away at a suburban stadium, AFL football returned to the Oval in 2014, and the AFLW Grand Final has been held here too. The ground has hosted rugby league and union, soccer matches against Liverpool and Manchester sides, and the 1888 visit of American baseball teams brought to Australia by Albert Spalding. Concerts have filled it since Fleetwood Mac played in 1977, with David Bowie, Paul McCartney, Madonna, and the Foo Fighters following over the years.

At the south-eastern corner, off King William Road, stand the Victor Richardson Gates, five iron gates raised in 1967 to honour the South Australian cricketer and footballer. They carry bronze reliefs by sculptor John Dowie showing footballers leaping for a mark and cricketers at the crease, the batsman modelled on Richardson himself. His grandsons Ian and Greg Chappell, themselves Test cricketers, helped form the guard of honour at the opening. Since 2021, the Bradshaw Bell, cast in Victoria and named for a former cricket administrator, has been rung to start each day of a Test. These small ceremonies tie the modern stadium to its long memory, the same memory the old hand-cranked scoreboard keeps changing, one number at a time.