Wins at The Ageas Bowl and at Lord’s have given England a 2-0 lead, so they could clinch the series at Nottingham, against opponents that they’ve faced on six previous occasions on the ground.
This will be the second One Day International staged by the county this summer, with the first proving to be an absolute thriller. On June 21st England and Sri Lanka played out a tied contest, with Liam Plunkett heaving the final ball over the ropes for a six to level the scores.
That was the 40th One Day International staged at Trent Bridge, with the first taking place on 31 August 1974 when England played Pakistan.
Originally scheduled to be a 55 over contest, morning rain reduced the contest to fifty overs per side. England made 244 for four, with David ‘Bumble’ Lloyd carrying his bat throughout the innings to reach 116 not out
Pakistan gave ODI debuts to Imran Khan and Zaheer Abbas but it was another of their celebrated batsmen, Majid Khan, who replied with a ton of his own as the tourists eased to a seven-wicket victory.
Apart from Lloyd, the other English batsmen to score Trent Bridge ODI centuries have been Keith Fletcher, Robin Smith, Alec Stewart, Nick Knight, Andrew Strauss, Paul Collingwood, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan and Allan Lamb, who is the only cricketer to score two ODI hundreds on the ground – 118 v Pakistan in 1982 and 100 not out against the Aussies seven years later.
There have only been five visiting centurions – Majid and Zaheer for Pakistan – and three Australians, Trevor Chappell, who did it in a 1983 World Cup match against India, plus Ricky Ponting and Tim Paine, who both reached three figures here against England in 2009.
Paul Collingwood is one of three bowlers, alongside, Pakistan’s Waqar Younis and Ken MacLeay of Australia, to claim six-wicket hauls in Trent Bridge One Day Internationals – with Nottinghamshire’s Stuart Broad, joining the great Indian all-rounder Kapil Dev as the only others to get five-fers.
Apart from Stuart – 10 other Notts players have represented England in Trent Bridge ODIs; his dad Chris Broad, Eddie Hemmings, Derek Randall, Chris Lewis, Paul Franks, Chris Read, Ryan Sidebottom, Graeme Swann, Samit Patel and Alex Hales.
Incredibly, the match in June wasn’t the only Trent Bridge ODI that resulted in a tie. Back in 1989 there was a similar outcome as both England and Australia scored 226 runs each.
Perhaps the biggest ODI shock on the ground came during a 1983 World Cup match when Zimbabwe beat Australia by 13 runs - and nine of the previous matches were umpired by the late, great David Shepherd.
Pakistan have played in a total of 11 One-Day Internationals at Trent Bridge. Their opponents have been England (six times; 1974, 1982, 1987, 1992, 1996, 2006), Australia (twice; 1979, 2001), Sri Lanka (1975), New Zealand 1983) and South Africa (1999).
Their overall record in Nottingham is seven wins and four losses, whilst against England they have won three times (1974,1987, 1996) and lost three (1982, 1992, 2006).
In their most recent meeting in 2006 Pakistan were restricted to 235 for eight from their 50 overs, with Abdul Razzaq top-scoring, making 75 not out from no.8 in the order. He hit his runs from 72 balls, with five fours and five sixes.
Younis Khan, who had played for Notts during the previous season, was dismissed for nought, with Mike Yardy, three for 24, the most successful wicket-taker.
England romped to their eight-wicket success thanks to an unbeaten 86 from Ian Bell after skipper Andrew Strauss had fallen for 78. Another former Notts man, Kevin Pietersen, was undefeated on 41 at the end. Both Stuart Broad and Chris Read were in the winning eleven.
This Trent Bridge fixture will be the 79th time that England and Pakistan have opposed each other in ODIs. Two matches finished as No Results but of the remainder:
England have 47 wins
Pakistan have 29 wins
There’s no finer cricketing sight than a packed Trent Bridge all spruced up for international duty and, hopefully, the fine forecast will see Trent Bridge keep up its proud record of not having lost an ODI game to the elements.
Trent Bridge will host an Investec Test Match between England and South Africa, and a Royal London One-Day International visit from the West Indies, in 2017.
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