Abell revels in 'surreal' hat-trick against Nottinghamshire

Tom Abell ripped through the Notts tail with a burst of 3-0 in nine balls, dismissing Luke Fletcher, Matt Carter and Harry Gurney with consecutive deliveries to help his side bowl their hosts out for 133 in their first innings at Trent Bridge

^{Tom Abell claimed a hat-trick for Somerset against Nottinghamshire}

Somerset captain Tom Abell is keeping hold of the ball with which he claimed his first career hat-trick.

Abell ripped through the Nottinghamshire tail with a burst of 3-0 in nine balls, dismissing Luke Fletcher, Matt Carter and Harry Gurney with consecutive deliveries to help his side bowl their hosts out for 133 in their first innings at Trent Bridge.

"It’s all a bit surreal because I didn’t anticipate that at the start of the day," he said after play on day two.

"But I’m delighted to contribute personally and it’s been a great day for us as a side, finishing the innings as we did was fantastic and then to bowl the way we did was awesome.

Abell described the experience as "surreal"

“It happened very quickly and is a bit of a blur but there was a little bit of swing and I tried to bowl in a decent area and the first one (Fletcher) took off a little bit and took the edge, the second one (Carter) wasn’t a great ball but sometimes these things go your way and then I just to replicate it and thought ‘what will be, will be’ and it was a great catch from Craig O (Overton) and I was in disbelief.

"I’ve got the ball and will keep it because it’s probably the only time this will happen. I’m going to savour it."

Despite Notts' meagre effort with the bat, the mild threat of relegation was staved off after Lancashire failed to gather maximum batting points at Hampshire.

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"It’s a day of relief when you get over the line," Nottinghamshire head coach Peter Moores said.

"We won’t hide from anything, it’s been a hard slog these last six weeks but it’s over the season and we have played some good cricket and got our points in the bank. We got some wins early on but since then it has been tough.

"We’ve got work to do now in this game, for the game and also for themselves. We’ve got to scrap hard and finish as strongly as we can."

You absolute hero @tomabell1!!!! 👊👊👊#WeAreSOMERSET#Hattrick pic.twitter.com/uXvvmRJ0C0

— Somerset Cricket 🏏 (@SomersetCCC) September 25, 2018