Matt Lineker has possibilities in First Class Cricket

Matt Lineker

One week after scoring a century for the Unicorns, Matt Lineker has scored another for them, this time against Leicestershire.

His 132 runs from just 104 balls contained seventeen fours and two sixes and has given them a chance of a win over the Foxes. He’s just taken three fours and a six from an over by Anthony Ireland, who most will remember dismantling our batting in the T20 a couple of weeks ago.

I know there were valid reasons for dispensing with his services and engaging an opener with greater first-class experience in Billy Godleman, but Matt has shown that at 28, he still has possibilities in first class cricket. I know that Leicestershire haven’t the greatest attack in the game, but Yorkshire‘s isn’t the worst and they were put to the sword last week.

In his last dozen or so innings for Lincolnshire in the Minor Counties and for the Unicorns, Lineker’s scores have gone 53, 27, 56 not, 44, 109 not, 72, 2, 62, 50, 41, 11, 107 and 132 .

At the risk of being in a minority of one, I’d suggest we were hasty to release him.

In fact, while his first-class average at the time, just under twenty, wasn’t the strongest argument to retention, he has done as much as he could this summer, with a List A average of sixty, to prove one simple, but at this stage undeniable point.

We were wrong.