As Trent Bridge prepares to welcome international cricket back to Nottingham in 2020, we look back at four gamechanging moments from the ICC Cricket World Cup at the venue.
Pakistan v West Indies: Russell’s raw pace proves too much
West Indian paceman Oshane Thomas may have picked up the man-of-the-match award for his four wickets as the West Indies routed Pakistan, but the day was equally sweet for Andre Russell.
‘Dre Russ’ had enjoyed a spell at Trent Bridge for 2016’s T20 Blast, but the weather conspired against him ever turning out at home in green and gold.
On his belated Trent Bridge bow, he wasted no time in showing the crowd exactly what they’d been missing three years previously.
Short, hostile, ferociously fast: the penultimate ball of his first over was simply too good for Fakhar Zaman.
The opener was hit on the grille, and could only watch as the ball trickled onto his stumps.
Zaman’s score of 22 would prove to be the highest of any Pakistani batsman on the day, Russell would finish with 2-4, and the Pakistan ‘sea of green’ would recede from the ground in defeat shortly after 2pm.
Pakistan v England: Trent Bridge at fever pitch after Root’s removal
Mercurial as ever, the men in green were a team transformed when they returned to Trent Bridge just three days later.
Having been abject against the West Indies, Pakistan produced their very best form to humble the tournament favourites, and whip the partisan visiting spectators into a frenzy.
And no moment better summed up their day than the dismissal of England’s lynchpin Joe Root.
Chasing a testing 349 to win, a century stand between Root and Jos Buttler had begun to turn the tide in the hosts’ favour.
But a quicker Shadab Khan delivery rushed Root, who could only scoop to third man.
The England Test skipper had to go, decibel levels from the travelling support reached new heights, and Pakistan secured a grip on the contest they were never to relinquish.
Australia v West Indies: Cottrell’s wondercatch
In a summer of astonishing fielding, this catch may have topped the lot.
Sheldon Cottrell’s defiant wicket-taking salute was already capturing the imagination of the public; he’d even been filmed teaching Nottingham schoolchildren how to celebrate like a star.
But the defining moment of his tournament would come on the boundary edge.
Chasing down a steepling Steve Smith leg-side pull, Cottrell had easily 20 yards to make up before reaching the ball just inches inside the rope in front of the Smith Cooper Stand.
No room? No problem.
He simply flicked the ball up with his left hand while running at full tilt, careered off the pitch, sprinted back into the field of play and completed the job himself.
Smith had to go for 73, as a rollercoaster contest between two former World Cup-winning sides took another turn.
Australia v Bangladesh: Maxwell’s ten-ball blast
Has there ever been a more explosive cameo in Cricket World Cup history?
Even written in black and white on the scorecard, Glenn Maxwell’s innings makes for astonishing reading.
2, 1, 4, 6, 4, 6, 0, 3, 6, out – it was a sequence which had it all.
Shoveled sixes over mid-off and clubbed maximums over square leg showed Maxwell’s full limited-overs repertoire, before a calamitous misunderstanding with Usman Khawaja led to a run-out and an end to the carnage.
He was at the crease for less than 15 minutes, but Maxwell was crucial in propelling Australia past 350 and applying the scoreboard pressure which would ultimately prove too much for Bangladesh.
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