Date of birth: 10 May 2000, Johannesburg
Nottinghamshire First Class debut: 11 July 2022 vs Glamorgan (Sophia Gardens)
If you’re going to make a career-best score, then you might as well make it a big one. At Trent Bridge against Durham, in the final match of 2022, Matthew Montgomery recorded his maiden first-class hundred in just his fourth match for Nottinghamshire.
On an occasion sprinkled with a host of team and individual milestones, he didn’t settle for just reaching three figures but went on to make 178 before being dismissed, one of four centurions in the same innings.
The right-handed top-order batter had earned his County Championship debut two months prior against Glamorgan, and top scored with 80 as Notts struck 285 in their first innings.
That wasn’t his First Class debut, though - that came in for KwaZulu Natal in 2018 before moving to England to study. Those matches in his homeland gave an early indication of both skill and temperament, with an innings of 104 against Western Province.
A dual national, Montgomery scored runs aplenty playing club cricket in Yorkshire and Leicestershire, before trialing for Nottinghamshire’s Second XI in 2021 and playing 10 matches in the Royal London Cup competition that year.
He is building his T20 experience, too, with his off-spin proving valuable following the departures of Messrs Patel and Carter.