Anthony McGrath: Let’s finish on a high, says Yorkshire CCC head coach
Notts v Yorkshire ANTHONY McGRATH has urged his Yorkshire team to maintain their momentum and finish a rollercoaster campaign on a high as they prepare for their final match of the season.
Yorkshire take on Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge from Thursday, with head coach McGrath insisting that a strong display can help set the tone ahead of next summer.
Yorkshire go into the game on the back of resounding home wins over Essex and Somerset.
“We’ve only one more game and it’s a long time till April, but my belief is you can do a lot of good in the last games of the season when it comes to taking momentum into the next year,” McGrath said.
“As such, it’s important that we back up those performances against another good team now in Notts.
“They’ll obviously want to finish strong as well, but particularly after the two great victories we’ve just had, it would be disappointing if we went to Notts and didn’t play well.
“We’re going there with no other ambition than to do our best and try to beat them.”
Yorkshire, in fifth, could potentially finish fourth if they win and Sussex lose at bottom club Hampshire.
Fifteen points separates Yorkshire from Sussex - just as 15 points separates third-placed Nottinghamshire from leaders Warwickshire.
Nottinghamshire suffered a costly defeat at Sussex last week in their bid to retain the title. They need to beat Yorkshire and hope Warwickshire slip up at home to second-bottom Leicestershire, and that second-placed Somerset do likewise at home to Surrey.
As with last week’s game, McGrath believes that Nottinghamshire will be a good yardstick of where Yorkshire stand.
“We knew we were coming up against two title challengers in Somerset and Notts to finish the season, and we played really well to beat Somerset,” he said.
“We wanted to see where we’re at in terms of 1), our skill, and 2), when it gets tough, could we throw some punches back? We certainly did that last week, and hopefully now we can do that again.”
Last week’s win completed the double over Somerset, whose only other defeat in this year’s Championship was at Glamorgan in Cardiff.
For McGrath, the achievement was bittersweet.
“To beat Somerset home and away says a lot, but it’s even more frustrating because we’ve lost to the two bottom teams (Leicestershire and Hampshire),” he said.
“So, in some ways it's good, but in other ways it's poor because we've left points out there."
Meanwhile, George Hill, who goes into the match needing five more wickets to reach 50 for the second successive Championship season, has been shortlisted for the Professional Cricketers’ Association men’s player of the year award, sponsored by Toyota.
The Yorkshire all-rounder is on the shortlist along with Nottinghamshire’s Joe Clarke, Surrey’s Dan Lawrence and Somerset’s Craig Overton. The annual awards ceremony takes place in London next Wednesday.
Yorkshire squad v Notts: Lyth, Luxton, Whiteman, Wharton, Revis, Bairstow (captain), Hill, Bess, Coad, Cliff, White, Bennison, Sylvester.