Abbott springs to life as a flat track bully

SEAN Abbott’s coffee preference is unknown but he likes his pitches flat and white.

The dead- track specialist has thrived where so many others have withered on the unforgiving Adelaide strips.

The flatter the better, Abbott seemed to be saying on Monday, as he took 4- 33 from 21.1 overs of hard toil on a drying surface.

Only Mitchell Swepson and Jackson Bird have more than Abbott’s 14 wickets this season as the bowlers have found the going hard on Adelaide’s plum batting wickets.

And Abbott’s miserly 14.35 is comfortably the best average of the competition’s leading bowlers.

His latest herculean effort kept NSW in the game after the Blues batsmen succumbed to be all out 64 on Sunday. By stumps on Monday Nick Larkin ( 103 not out) and Moises Henriques ( 75 not out) had guided the Blues to 2- 215 to eke out a 40- run lead.

The Park 25 No. 1 track had plenty in it on Sunday but quickly dried in Monday’s 34C swelter – as shown by NSW’s second innings score. Still Abbott kept charging in to limit Tasmania’s lead.

“Yesterday ( Sunday) was a tough day,” Larkin said after play. “Tassie got the better of us. To be bowled out for 60 in the first innings, well, you’re a long way behind the game.”

Resuming on 4- 149 after NSW was bowled out for 64 on Sunday, Tasmania posted 239 to lead by 175 on the first innings.

Jordan Silk joined Adelaide’s festival of the bat to make 106 – his first Shield century since November, 2018.