County Championship Division One, Cardiff, Day Three – Glamorgan 229 and 140-5 trail Somerset 337-9 (Abell 86, Thomas 71) and 157 (Abell 71) by 142 runs with 5 second innings wickets remaining.
If there is anyone out there who is unaware of my admiration for Tom Abell let me enlighten you. In over 55 years of supporting Somerset cricket there are only a select few who have represented the county who rank close to my fellow Tauntonian. And those few are pretty illustrious; Viv, The Big Bird, Tres and Jack Leach have each etched themselves in the annals of my beloved county, but this season Abell is taking his contribution to another level.
But today’s contribution is, even for Abell, stratospherically above anything else he has achieved. There are double hundreds that Viv and Tres have made for the county and match-winning bowling performances from Leach and Garner which pale into insignificance compared to Abell’s innings today.
Hyperbole? I don’t think so. Walking to the wicket at 7-3 last night following the hat-trick, first ball delivery of Archie Vaughan, Abell, last man out, supervised and contributed to the addition of 150 runs to take Glamorgan’s second innings run chase to a challenging 282.
And note that, and this is one of Abell’s great qualities, as referenced by Josh Thomas last week after his maiden hundred, Abell makes batting at the other end easier.
It all seemed a long way away when Craig and Migael were dismissed within the first hour. 68-8 was still well short of what was required. Fortunately, in skipper Lewis Gregory, Abell finally found someone capable of keeping him company and how both he and his beloved county prospered. A lead of 193 became 252 in just 14 overs with Lewis’s 45 coming off just 42 balls.
And even then Abell was not done. He supported, encouraged and cajoled Jake Ball to a 21 ball 0*. Maybe not in the league of Jack Leach at Leeds in 2019 but up there all the same. The last wicket pair had added a priceless 30 by the time the tended morning session ended.
The shame was that Abell was dismissed straight after lunch and will probably have been extremely frustrated by not being able to extend the lead to the promised land of 300+. An that is the measure of the man.
So we come down to the equation. 283 in five session for the home side.
No-one would have anticipated a complete absence of spin in what remained of day three. But Somerset’s seam foursome stuck to their task throughout. Gregory was able to rotate the four and there was no point at which Glamorgan seemed confident of success despite an opening stand of 81. Wickets fell at regular intervals thereafter with the Rew/Pretorious combination’s removal of Kellaway near the close probably pivotal.
Glamorgan aren’t yet half way there. Somerset have the ascendency and it would take something special from Sean Dickson and the Glamorgan lower order to deny Somerset.
I’m not counting and chickens just yet. But if the Cricketing Gods have any sense of proportion they will, like me, want Tom Abell to be on the winning side some time tomorrow
