As things stand, the club are fourth in the County Championship First Division, through to the semi-finals of the Friends Provident Trophy and through to the quarter-finals of the Twenty20 Cup. Their Pro40 campaign starts on Wednesday week.

I don't know about you, but Yorkshire have performed pretty much as I had expected.

The team have done slightly better than I thought in the Championship (although Yorkshire are fourth, they are only one point behind second-placed Lancashire) and more or less as I thought in the one-day game.

If Yorkshire defeat Essex at Chelmsford today to reach the Friends Provident Trophy final and then beat Durham at Chester-le-Street on Monday to reach their first Twenty20 finals day, they will have exceeded my expectations in the one-day arena.

Yorkshire's season does not necessarily hinge on what happens in the next couple of days, but it will certainly have a significant bearing on the overall picture.

Victories against Essex and Durham would be proof positive that the team is going forward, while a worst-case scenario would leave things more or less as they have been in recent years, with Yorkshire finding themselves there or thereabouts in the knockout stages but not quite able to take that decisive step towards the all-important silverware.

Regardless of the outcome of this double-header, I believe Yorkshire are a better one-day than Championship side, although I do think progress is being made in the four-day competition.

The form of young players such as Andrew Gale has been highly encouraging, while Tim Bresnan has come on to a marked degree.

There is good competition for places, which has not always been the case in recent seasons, and Yorkshire have been competitive in all forms of the game.

They have also benefited from having Matthew Hoggard available following his axing by England, which has helped compensate for the absence of Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, the overseas fast bowler.

In one-day cricket, Yorkshire are now capable of beating anyone, and although the Pro40 competition is generally regarded as an irrelevance, I would expect them to win promotion from Division Two.

The Championship, of course, remains the priority and there is work to do in the second half of the summer.

How close are Yorkshire to winning the title? They could be as little as just under three months away, for there is no truly outstanding team in this year's competition, or it may take them longer to realise that ambition.

All that can be said with certainty is that Yorkshire are in the mix and that the table is so tight that just about any side could challenge if they get on a roll. However, the eight-wicket defeat to Durham last week suggested Yorkshire will do well to win the Championship.

Durham were superior in most departments and the match highlighted what can happen when Yorkshire come up against a quality attack and when someone like Jacques Rudolph fails to come off.

Rudolph remains Yorkshire's best batsman statistically in the Championship this year with 556 runs at 55.60, with Gale averaging 51.45.

More consistency is needed from the rest of the top order, but Yorkshire have the wicket-taking power to keep pressing forward.