KFC BBL|12
Believing he was letting his team down throughout the first half of the tournament, Sean Abbott has taken nine wickets in his past three matches to help put his side within one point of top spot going into tonight's game against the Adelaide Strikers
Josh Schonafinger
17 January 2023, 10:48 AM AEST
@joshschon
Sydney Sixers bowling allrounder Sean Abbott has returned to form in fine style after believing he was letting his team down in the first half of the tournament.
Abbott took 10 wickets in the first seven matches of KFC BBL|12 but leaked runs, conceding 9.92 runs per over, some way off his BBL career economy rate of 8.50.
Even more concerning for the Sydney Sixers was his performance with the ball in the Power Surge.
The normally reliable Abbott had conceded 55 runs in three Surge overs, resulting in him losing the job in favour of Hayden Kerr and Chris Jordan.
However with Jordan having now departed Australia for the ILT20 league in the UAE, Abbott once again shoulders the responsibility of bowling one of the crucial Surge overs, which he did with aplomb on Sunday night against the Perth Scorchers, conceding only six runs.
"My Power Surges haven't been great this year," Abbott admitted after the six-run win over the Scorchers.
"CJ (Jordan) came in and bowled them pretty well.
"I went away and did some planning because I want to be better there, because I'm obviously the senior bowler in the side and I've sort of let the guys down there.
"They're two key overs in the bowling innings and I've not been anywhere near the mark."
But the form of Abbott, who has represented Australia 17 times in white-ball cricket, has flipped for the better in his past three matches.
He took 3-31 against the Stars, 3-9 against the Thunder and 3-18 against the Scorchers which has catapulted him up the BKT Golden Arm rankings to second spot with 19 wickets.
And crucially, the Sixers won all those matches to now sit one point behind the Scorchers with three games to play.
The 30-year-old puts his return to form down to his execution.
"Last game against the Thunder I felt like I executed pretty close to 24 balls that I wanted," Abbott told reporters.
Abbott's four overs against the Thunder cost only nine runs, conceded no boundaries and came with 17 dot balls.
It was also the second-most economical four-over spell by a Sydney Sixer in history, behind only Ben Dwarshuis' 3-7 in BBL|08.
The Sixers head to Coffs Harbour to take on the Adelaide Strikers on Tuesday night, where Abbott is expecting a batter-friendly wicket.
A win over the fourth-placed Strikers would at least temporarily send the Sixers to the top of the table.
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