Kyle Abbott, County Championship
Kyle Abbott (Image Credit: Google)

Former South African international player Kyle Abbott recently delivered one of the top bowling performance in County Championship history after managing nine wickets in an innings.

The 32-year-old Hampshire right-arm pacer managed this achievement against Somerset at Southampton in the County Championship Division One 2019. On Tuesday (17th September), during day two of this match, Abbott achieved this feat.

Kyle Abbott (Image Credit: Google)

After Hampshire scored only 196 runs in the first innings, Abbott’s dominating bowling destroyed the Somerset. Abbott had the bowling figures of 18.4-9-40-9 while Somerset were all out on just 142 runs in their first innings. Only three players reached the 20-run mark in that innings and they were captain Tom Abell (20), Dominic Bess (37) and Roelof van der Merwe (29*).

Apart from the middle-order batsman Tom Banton, all other dismissed batsmen in that innings lost their wickets during Abbott’s over. Banton lost his wicket on 6 runs through the caught behind during Fidel Edwards’ over (1/42).

Among the nine wickets of Kyle Abbott, three came from bowled, three came from lbw and the other three came from caught dismissals. Somerset opener Murali Vijay failed to open his account while Abbott trapped him for the lbw.

Kyle Abbott (Image Credit: Google)

 

Abbott’s 9/40 bowling figures were the sixth-best bowling figures in the 21st century County Championship history. Due to this dominating bowling performance, Somerset only managed to score 142 runs in their first innings.

At the stumps of day 2, Hampshire were batting on 176/8 in their second innings, thanks to the century of captain James Vince (102*). Battling on 103/8, Vince managed the unbroken 73 runs partnership with Kyle Abbott (17*) for the ninth wicket. Hampshire were leading by 230 runs.

Former South African pacer Kyle Abbott played 60 international matches

Kyle Abbott made his international debut in February 2013. In January 2017, he retired from the international cricket after signing the Kolpak deal with Hampshire. He played 11 Tests, 28 ODIs and 21 T20Is where he took 39, 34 and 26 wickets respectively.