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During the first day’s play in the County Championship Division One match between Somerset and Hampshire, Kyle Abbott was denied two wickets in two balls in bizarre circumstances at the County Ground in Taunton. After picking up the wicket of Tom Kohler-Cadmore, the South African cricketer, who was playing for Hampshire, had trapped Shoaib Bashir of Somerset in front of the stumps, but since the towel had dropped from his trousers in the follow through, it was called a no-ball by the on-field umpire.
Notably, the umpire made the decision after Shoaib Bashir looked a bit frustrated after he had pointed to him about the towel falling from Kyle Abbott’s trousers. A commentator on the broadcast confirmed the reason as to why the on-field umpire had called it a no-ball by saying, “His towel has fallen out of his back pocket, which means it’s a no-ball. And would you believe it? Kyle Abbott would’ve been on a hattrick.”
Somerset were bundled out for just 136 runs in first innings against Hampshire
In the same over, just a couple of balls later after the bizarre moment, Kyle Abbott managed to pick up the wicket of Shoaib Bashir lbw without troubling the scorers. With the final dismissal of their first innings, Somerset were bundled out for just 136 runs in 53.5 overs after Tom Kohler-Cadmore top scored for them with 63 off 135, while for Hampshire, Liam Dawson and Kyle Abbott did the bulk of the damage with four wickets each.
Watch Kyle Abbott's bizarre no-ball in County Championship here:
In response, Hampshire managed to get up to 196 in 60.4 overs, thanks mainly to Toby Albert’s 77 off 162, while for Somerset, their star left-arm spinner Jack Leach picked up a five-wicket haul. In the second innings, Somerset had reached 60/4 in 22 overs at the close of play on day two with Tom Kohler-Cadmore and James Rew at the crease.
