FROM CHRIS KEYWOOD, CHAIRMAN, LINCOLNSHIRE COUNTY CRICKET CLUB
Lincolnshire began their 2013 season with a visit to
Shrewsbury to play Shropshire in the first of their four Minor Counties Knock
Out Group matches.
Shropshire won the toss and put Lincolnshire in to bat. An
early breakthrough saw Kranjit Bansal bowled for nought and this brought
debutant Mat Lineker, the former Derbyshire player, to the crease to join the
aggressive Dan Birch. These two advanced the score to 64 before Birch was
dismissed for 38 and he was quickly followed by Vikram Atri. There then followed
a century stand between Lineker and Paul Cook before the latter was dismissed
for an excellent 55. With plenty of overs remaining Lincolnshire were looking
to post a total of around 300 and whilst Lineker was there it looked highly
likely. The lower order could not build on this position and when Lineker was
caught on the long-on boundary for 97 the innings fell away with only captain
Brett Houston with 21 not out reaching double figures. Lincs were finally
dismissed for 261, some 30 to 40 runs short of a likely winning total.
Early wickets were needed if Lincs were to take a firm hold
on the game and Adam Shepherd duly obliged clean bowling opener Oliver with the
first ball of the innings. Ed Foster and Bilal Shafayat then scored freely
before Dan Freeman dismissed the latter. Foster was dismissed by Shepherd for
45 and with Shropshire on 102 for 3 Lincs were well in the game. There then
followed the match winning stand of 106 for Shropshire between Joe Leach (69)
and Rob Foster (72 not out) which took them to within 54 of victory. After
Leach was dismissed by Bansal Jon Whitney together with Foster saw Shropshire
to victory with 3 overs to spare. Lincs tried everything they could to contain
the strong Shropshire batting line up using 7 bowlers in the process but to no
avail.
Lincolnshire’s next group fixture is against Wiltshire at
Woodhall Spa on Sunday, 5th May with an 11am start.
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