Sean Abbott stuns Kent – and himself – with 34-ball hundred

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Surrey 223 for 5 (Abbott 110*) count knows 182 for 7 (Muyeye 59, Bell-Drummond 52) by 41 runs

Sean Abbott’s first thought of a glorious night he could never have imagined was that he’s not Andrew Symonds with the bat. That made his intervention at the Kia Oval all the more remarkable. He now shares with Symonds the joint fastest T20 hundred ever made in England and the fourth fastest in T20 history after his 34 ball romp for Surrey in front of 17,000 spectators. He’s not a mean cricketer, but he couldn’t stop smiling at the absurdity of it all.

Kent was pleasantly surprised by Symonds’ hundred that night at Maidstone in 2004 as T20’s potential dawned. This time they were the fall guys, their control of Surrey’s top league abruptly relinquishing on one of those nights where a recognized lower order batsman just discovers a power within himself never seen before.

Nearly two decades have passed since Symonds revealed the T20’s potential. Then the game invited skepticism and suspicion, even in the country that had been bold and progressive enough to present it to the world. As Abbott underlined again, it has since become a game where anything is possible.

“I don’t think people should think of me and ‘Roy’ in the same breath,” Abbott said, just after his unbeaten 110 off 41 balls with four fours and 11 sixes (all but one between long on and deep square) became common the latest story of the unexpected. “But it was a lot of fun. I was just thankful that I found the center of the bat.”

He encountered it so many times in his debut T20 appearance at Kia Oval that he is now just four balls away from Chris Gayle’s all-time record. He achieved the feat in the penultimate by drilling his compatriot veteran sailor Michael Hogan for consecutive sixes over extra cover. This from a seam bowler whose average in T20 was 10.91, who had never made more than 41 in 76 previous innings in this format, and who made just 51 runs as an afterthought in the Sydney Sixers 2022-23 Big Bash campaign .

No one doubts he can bat – he’s made good runs for Surrey in the Championship this season and has a first-class average of 22 – but this was only the second hundred of his professional career. Inspiration fell on him.

It was Kent Day, the feast of St Augustine, which celebrates the patron saint of Kent and the first Archbishop of Canterbury. But this time the chewing was left to Abbott, whose sacred qualities aren’t even known in Windsor, New South Wales. He came in with Surrey 64 for 4 in 8.2 provisional overs. Sam Curran had left halfway through to do a little catching practice and the field was crying out for someone to just kick it up a notch.

Thanks to Surrey’s unusual reliance on a bowler-heavy side, Abbott had that opportunity. He later said he just didn’t want to use too many balls. With six overs to go, Surrey were 118 for 5, Abbott on 28 from 17, and there was talk of how 170 would top Kia Oval’s par score. But Surrey added 105 in the last five overs. First Kent’s bowling fell apart, then their fielding followed. They started as the side that finished top of Group South in 2021 and finished as the side that finished bottom a year later.

Abbott first liked George Linde’s left arm twist – too short, six; too full, another six. He might have hollowed out on 47 during that over, but Joey Evison, who had watched those two balls sail over his head for many miles, couldn’t gain ground in the long run to the miss.

Kane Richardson, another Australian in the line of fire, then passed for 30 (6-4-6-4-4-6) on the 18th. Richardson opted for wide yorkers but never succeeded, and Abbott, now discovering his full repertoire, mixed delicate oxen with reclined swells in a warm South London air.

When one of those moves didn’t work against Evison, Linde, who had had a bad night, leaned over to find a sitter. Now that the century had been won against Hogan, there was also time for laughter, as Richardson and Jack Leaning struck another blow on the boundary boards together.

It was a long way from the start of Surrey. It was good to see Sam Curran back in Surrey’s side, also captain, so soon after an IPL season in which he had been accused of living up to a record £1.85 million fee. “A season with many ups and downs, a lot to learn from and come back stronger,” he had tweeted. He can relax in a tournament where IPL price tags are rarely a topic of conversation.

Another Surrey IPL contingent, Jason Roy, was once again absent with a minor calf injury, quite coincidentally after a fraught and highly publicized week in which he canceled his England contract to sign for the MLC’s inaugural tournament in the United States. The suggestion remains that he will see Surrey’s Blast season and miss the start of the MLC tournament as they reach the final stage, but cricket is in flux, Roy is one of the players at the center of it and nothing can be assumed set in stone to be chiseled.

In the meantime, Surrey’s medical team will see more of him than Surrey’s supporters, which is a common state of affairs that county cricket is finding increasingly difficult to live with.

It was therefore difficult to notice the words of Alec Stewart, Surrey’s director of cricket – and apparently a contender to replace the late Mystic Meg – who commented a week or so earlier on England’s top players linked to counties: “They are leaving and play elsewhere and when they come back they want time in indoor school with the best coaches just to get ready to leave and play in another franchise league through the physio, the doctor, the medical staff and can I also rehab ?’ “

Sunil Narine stood in as opener 24 hours earlier in Surrey’s win against Middlesex at Lord’s, but this time Surrey promoted Laurie Evans and make-do-and-med with Abbott at number 6. It all went pretty well.

Kent got off to a snappy start with the bat as Daniel Bell-Drummond and Tawande Muyeye repeatedly crossed the line to reach 75 in the power play. Both reached half-centuries – Muyeye’s first – but after Sunil caught Narine Bell-Drummond in the deep, Kent collapsed. The last over was left to Abbott, the game won, his face full of smiles, but no wicket to put the finishing touches to his night.

David Hopps writes about county cricket for ESPNcricinfo @davidkhopps



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