Sean Abbott bowled a heart-warming spell for New South Wales against Queensland.
Sean Abbott, the 22-year-old New South Wales and Australian seamer, showed resilience and a singular aim to succeed by taking 6 for 14 against Queensland in the second innings in a Sheffield Shield game to emerge out of the darkest phase of his life as a true winner.
Just two weeks ago, a fine bouncer from Abbott, fatally struck Phil Hughes, resulting in a serious impact on the lower-left side of his head. The left-handed batsman then, passed away due to a fractured skull and catastrophic bleeding in his brain.
Since that freak incident, there were question marks over whether a shell-shocked Abbott, could recover from it and again play at the highest level. Abbott though, by taking eight wickets in the match against Queensland in Sydney has made a fine return to competitive cricket. His awe-inspiring spell helped New South Wales to thump Queensland by an innings and 80 runs.
After Usman Khawaja, the former New South Wales' top-order batsman, had steadied the ship for a brief period, Abbott ripped through Queensland's middle-order.
In a superb spell of seam bowling, he took the wickets of the technically efficient, Peter Forrest, Nathan Reardon, Chris Hartley, Ben Cutting, James Hopes and Cameron Brimblecombe. At one point, he was even on a hat-trick. His spell of 6 for 14 turned out to be his best figures in an innings. His previous best of 4 for 36 had come against Tasmania in Hobart in 2013-14.
"It's something new. I said after last week, 'As if this ground needs any more history than it already has.' In a strange way, it just adds to how remarkable our game is, how bizarre this game is," Moises Henriques, New South Wales' captain, was quoted as saying by news.com.au.
"It's something extraordinary that happened on that cricket field. I don't have the words for it," Trevor Bayliss, the coach of New South Wales said on Abbott's splendid display of quality bowling.
"I don't think there was any thought at all of him not playing this game and the fact that his name kept getting mentioned as the bowler [who felled Hughes] kept reminding him and everyone else about that incident," Bayliss concluded.
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