Yorkshire CCC: I overstepped the mark after that ‘dismissal’ against Lancashire

LOOKING back at the Roses game, there was obviously my ‘dismissal’ when I ended up being called back and it was a weird one. It’s never really happened to me before. I was given out down the leg side when I was nowhere near the ball and was shocked I was given out. It was only half an appeal really, but I probably acted in a way I shouldn’t have done and told the umpires what I thought and what had happened on the way off. They did call me back. I think because Peter Willey gave the decision so quickly, the square-leg umpire was signalling it had come off my leg, but he (Willey) had already given me out by then, so by the time he spoke to the umpire at square leg, Ian Gould, he decided to call me back. Fair play to Lancashire, they didn’t make a massive deal of it. Chappy (Glen Chapple) was probably disappointed by the way I reacted and I apologised to him as he’s been in a similar disciplinary situation before. It’s up to the ECB now to make a decision over whether I get disciplinary points. But I apologised to the two umpires and Glen and it’s one of those things that happen in sport and we move on. Unfortunately, in terms of my innings, I ran out of partners and ended 95 not out and it was just one of those things. I felt as good as I have all year at the crease and in good form. It was disappointing not to get the hundred, but I pride myself on getting runs when the team needs me and that was a time when the team needed the captain to stand up and deliver. As for the game, from start to finish, we weren’t really on the ball for whatever reason. As I have said, if you are not quite on it in this league, you get punished, whatever you play. We must use it as a lesson. From a bowling point of view, we probably bowled too short. We know at Headingley you have got to get the ball full to give it a chance to get the batsmen driving and we didn’t do that for long enough. Batting-wise, we were soft. We pride ourselves on being ruthless and making big scores of 400 to 450 this year and didn’t do that against Lancashire. It was a decent pitch and if you were prepare to roll up your sleeves and get stuck in, there were runs to be had. We didn’t do that, but having said that, we fought back into it well and while we were slightly behind the eight-ball in the game, it was fairly evenly poised for the game to run its natural course and I would have backed us to knock off the score we needed if we’d bowled them out on the last day. It was disappointing we lost so much time to the weather. The Roses game is usually a good spectacle and the cricket was. But the weather won, in the end. For Ryan Sidebottom to get a hamstring strain was really disappointing too. We went out of our way in our previous game against Warwickshire to rest him and he’d rested for nearly two weeks and we got rained off at Birmingham last week as well and we’d managed his bowling loads and wrapped him in cotton wool. Then he comes back and tears his hamstring. It’s Sod’s Law – next time around, I have told him we are going to run him into the ground until he breaks! It’s one of those things. Unfortunately, he’s going to be out for a few weeks, although the scan results came back and it’s looking that he is not going to be out for more than two weeks really, which is the best of a bad job when you tear a hamstring really. Obviously, Aaron Finch has now arrived and will also play in the County Championship along with T20 and one of the reasons he chose us rather than the other counties was that he wanted to prove he could do it with the red ball as well as he has ambitions to play Test cricket with Australia. He’s already fitted really well in the dressing room, gone about his business well and I have told him he is probably going to bat in the middle order for us. I have told him to go out, be aggressive and play his natural game and not hold back. If he does that, he’s a match-winner on his day and can perform with the red ball. Coming in at four, five or six, he can take a game away from the opposition in a session and that’s how I want him to play. ***Our exclusive Andrew Gale column is in association with Blacks Solicitors***

Yorkshire CCC: I overstepped the mark after that ‘dismissal’ against Lancashire – Gale