'Angry' Kyle Abbott takes hat-trick to help Hampshire beat the rain

Hampshire won by half-dozen wickets

Written report

Kyle Abbott'south chapeau-trick and six-for seal Hampshire'due south win in Cheltenham sprint end

Hampshire hot on Surrey's tail despite Miles Hammond's efforts on dramatic last 24-hour interval

Kyle Abbott celebrates subsequently his final-day hat-play tricks  •  Getty Images

Hampshire 457 (Organ 118, Vince 95, Barker 50) and 82 for 4 (Higgins three-41) beat Gloucestershire 201 (Price 59, van Buuren 58*) and 337 (Hammond 169, Higgins 63, Abbott 6-76, Barker 4-65) by 6 wickets

"Catches win matches" say the coaches and the guild bores. The one-time know the saying is merely useful but the latter invest the words with such profundity that i might suppose they have been plucked straight from Wittgenstein's Tractatus. Rhyme has got a lot to reply for.

Runs win matches, besides. (Meet D Thousand Bradman, J B Hobbs and S R Tendulkar etc.) And and so also do wickets. Run into D Grand Muralidaran, C A Walsh and on this remarkable Fri in Cheltenham M J Abbott, whose five wickets in 12 assurance gear up a Hampshire win that James Vince and his cricketers will recall contentedly should the pennant be flying over the Ageas Bowl in September. Abbott'south devastating burst either side of lunch included the second hat-trick of his career and it ensured that Hampshire would exist chasing a modest 82 to win the game and thereby trim Surrey's pb at the top of Sectionalization One to 14 points.

As though paranoid about the approach of thunderstorms from the south-west, Hampshire's batters moved into full T20 fashion and knocked the runs off in 9.3 overs for the loss of iv wickets, three of them to Ryan Higgins, whose 115-run partnership with Miles Hammond had earlier appeared likely to delay their opponents' victory, if non scupper information technology altogether. Indeed, until Abbott placed his size 13 boots on his opponents' necks, most of the morning had been dominated by Higgins and Hammond, with the latter being dropped three times in as many overs in a bizarre passage of play. Information technology was, in brusque, a quiet old day at the College Ground.

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The morning had begun more or less as Hampshire might have wished. In the fourth over of the morn Graeme van Buuren half-drove at a ball outside his off stump and edged a shoulder-high catch to Vince at first slip. Not for the first or last time, one was quietly amazed at the ease with which county cricketers snaffle balls that are travelling at 80mph/130kph. The professionals may view such catches as regulation; many of their social club counterparts certainly don't.

But no cricketers, regardless of their level of expertise, regard keeping wicket to spinners as straightforward, and then there may have more understanding vii overs after when Ben Brown dropped a feathered chance from Hammond off Dawson when the Gloucestershire left-hander had already reached a career-best 124. Five minutes later, the left-arm spinner had his caput buried in his hands once again after Vince had put down Hammond at skid, the sharp chance going waist-high to the skipper's left.

Those errors, though, were merely preludes to the accented dolly put downwards in Dawson'southward very next over, when Hammond top-edged a reverse-sweep and Felix Organ at backward point muffed a gentle, lobbed grab to which he had to brand little ground before diving comfortably forward. The fielder was plainly balked, the bowler frustrated beyond words. It was a run a risk which nigh serious lodge players would have taken. But ii assurance later, Nick Gubbins trotted across from short leg to console Organ and pat him on the hip. Such elementary acts of encouragement ofttimes mark out successful sides from the residual. They are likewise a good way of identifying decent people.

For an hr or and then afterwards, Hammond and Higgins batted equally if fate could not impact them. Hammond continued to stroke the brawl effectually with classical ease, reaching his 150 off 235 balls with 23 fours and three sixes. "It'll come, it'll be better when it does," shouted Hampshire'south fielders merely past now there were strains of incertitude in their yells. At the other end, Higgins played in a manner antonymous to his irresponsibility on Thursday. Of course at that place were attacking shots - seven fine boundaries in his 79-ball l, indeed - simply at that place was rest and judgement too. Runs came hands and a atomic number 82 that had once seemed impossible grew: twenty, thirty, 40…

On the stroke of lunch Hampshire got the wicket they craved. Hammond drove at a pitched-up ball from Abbott simply but edged a catch to Vince at skid. He led the players off having made 169 off 278 balls. It had been a chance-littered innings to be sure just one that was revelatory of character and studded with fine strokes.

Over lunch in that location was talk of rain in Bristol. On the resumption Abbott bowled as if half a dozen of the plagues of Arab republic of egypt were about to descend on Cheltenham. His first ball was slanted across Zafar Gohar but compelled the shot; the batter nicked the catch to Brown. Abbott's next brawl was full and direct and quick. Tom Cost missed and Graham Lloyd'southward tumultuous week drew to a shut with an like shooting fish in a barrel conclusion. Abbott was mobbed past his team-mates and this in itself was a fine effort; in case yous accept not noticed, at that place is rather a lot of Kyle Abbott to mob.

All of a sudden Gloucestershire were 316 for 8. As though refusing to display such grim tidings, the scoreboard conked out. Cheerily undaunted by such mechanical not-compliance, Abbott continued his merry trip the light fantastic. In his side by side over Higgins swung him to deep square leg and was caught by James Fuller for a fine 63; ten minutes later Josh Shaw swiped him to Gubbins at midwicket.

Even in a place every bit strange as the Higher Ground, the but threat to Hampshire was now the weather. Vince came out to open but watched as Organ drove Higgins for 3 fours in the start over. Organ eventually fell for an eight-ball 17 but Vince hit 24 off sixteen deliveries in what became a race against the budgeted elements. That was a sprint Hampshire won and they now go to Scarborough on Mon after the sort of week that defines a season.

Paul Edwards is a freelance cricket author. He has written for the Times, ESPNcricinfo, Wisden, Southport Visiter and other publications

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Source: https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/county-championship-division-one-2022-1297650/gloucestershire-vs-hampshire-44th-match-1297747/match-report-4

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