IT was once asked of Shane Warne: "Who writes your scripts?"

The same question will be put to Darren Gough if he leads Yorkshire to victory in today's Friends Provident Trophy semi-final against his former club Essex and wins through to his first Lord's final at county level.

Gough, 37, has achieved a great many things during his 20-year career – he took 229 Test wickets, claimed 235 one-day international scalps and famously bagged an Ashes hat-trick in Sydney.

But he has never played in a county one-day final at Lord's – he has only appeared in Lord's finals with England.

For a man who takes enormous pride in his one-day performances, and who is still one of the best "death" bowlers around, that is something he is keen to address as he enters the last lap of a career that began – appropriately enough – at Lord's when he made his first-class debut against Middlesex in 1989.

As with Australian Warne, whom he resembles in flamboyance and general approach to the game, the one certainty is that Gough's latest script will be well worth following.

"It would be a fairytale finish for me to get to Lord's," said Gough, who returned to Yorkshire last year after three seasons at Chelmsford.

"Getting to a one-day final with Yorkshire would be a dream come true; I'm just one game away from making that happen and there would certainly be no better way to go out in my last season. If we can win the trophy that would be the icing on the cake."

All eyes will be on Gough today as Yorkshire look to build on their quarter-final victory over Gloucestershire.

But he stressed the wider picture was more important as Yorkshire seek their first major silverware since they last won this tournament – then the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy – in 2002, Gough missing the six-wicket victory over Somerset through injury.

"Yes it would be nice to get to Lord's on a personal level, but it's not just about me," said Gough. "It's about everyone at Yorkshire and the club as a whole trying to move forward.
"There's a lot of young guys in our team who will never have a better opportunity of getting to Lord's, and I'll be making sure they're aware of that.
"Everyone wants to get there in our camp, but Essex will want it as well because I've played there and I know what getting to a Lord's final would mean to them.
"They've got some good young players who are desperate for success and we've got to make sure we're as desperate for success as they are. I've no doubt we are."

Gough won back-to-back one-day league titles at Essex and has plenty of inside knowledge of today's opponents.

He knows all about the likes of Ravi Bopara, for example, who smashed 201 not out against Leicestershire in the quarter-final, and is well aware of the capabilities of Graham Napier, who recently bludgeoned 152 not out from 58 balls against Sussex in the Twenty20 Cup.

Gough also knows Essex will have a spy in their camp in the form of his great friend Paul Grayson, the former Yorkshire player who is first team coach at Chelmsford.

"I know all about how Essex play and Paul Grayson knows all about how Yorkshire play, so there won't be any secrets," said Gough.

Gough made a point of outlining his desire to turn Yorkshire into a successful one-day unit when he returned to the county and now he faces a key test of that mission with today's game followed by Monday's Twenty20 quarter-final against Durham at Chester-le-Street.

He attributes Yorkshire's development in limited-overs cricket to greater confidence and self-belief.

"When I came back to Yorkshire I said the one thing I really wanted to improve was the one-day cricket," he added.

"I thought that was one area where Yorkshire could improve a lot, and I think we've done that in recent months.

"The key is that people in the dressing room are now starting to believe that we're a good one-day side.

Full story in Saturday's Yorkshire Post.