On Wednesday (18th September), former South African international cricketer Kyle Abbott delivered the best bowling figures in the last 63 years history of a first-class match. Hampshire pacer took a total of 17 wickets in the County Championship match against Somerset.
Kyle Abbott completed this achievement on day three of this game. Earlier, on day two of this match, Abbott claimed nine wickets during Somerset’s first innings. In that innings, he had the bowling figures of 18.4-9-40-9.
Read More: BBL 2019/20: Afghan Spinners Mujeeb Ur Rahman And Zahir Khan Sign For Brisbane Heat
In the fourth innings of this match, Abbott took eight more wickets. This time he had the bowling figures of 17.4-3-46-8. Finally, his total match bowling figures were 36.2-12-86-17.
During Somerset’s first innings, only Fiedel Edwards took the other wicket (1/42). Meanwhile, Liam Dawson bagged the other two wickets in the fourth innings of this game.
Since the English off-spinner, Jim Laker achieved the best ever bowling figures in the first-class history (19/90) in 1956, Abbott’s latest match bowling figures were the best bowling figures in a first-class match. Laker achieved the all-time record feat after playing for England in the Manchester Test against Australia.
On the other hand, Kyle Abbott’s 17/86 were the fourth-best bowling figures in a County Championship match history. The best bowling figures in a County Championship match history were 17/48 by Colin Blythe (Kent) against Northamptonshire in 1907. Overall, it was the 11th best bowling figures in first-class cricket history.
Among the Somerset batters, their opener Murali Vijay was one of the players who lost wickets twice in Abbott’s overs. While the Indian cricketer scored a duck in the first innings, he scored 29 runs in the fourth innings of this match.
The dangerous Kyle Abbott guided Hampshire to the comfortable victory
After winning the toss, Hampshire managed to score 196 runs in their first innings, thanks to Liam Dawson’s century (103). Once in that innings, they were struggling on 88/7.
Kyle Abbott’s dominating bowling performance forced Somerset to get all out on 142 runs in their first innings.
In their second innings, Hampshire scored 226 runs. This time, Abbott played a crucial role with the bat. Struggling on 103/8, James Vince and Abbott had 119 runs partnership for the ninth wicket. While the captain Vince scored 142 runs, Abbott lost his wicket after scoring 25 runs off 66 balls.
Read More: Ashes 2019: Tim Paine Reveals He And Peter Siddle Suffered From Injuries In Fifth Test Match
Later, Abbott’s another dominating performance helped Hampshire to bowl out Somerset for 144 runs in the fourth innings. While Somerset had the 281 runs target in the fourth innings, Hampshire won this game by 136 runs.