Ben Coad confident Yorkshire CCC will pick up from where they left off in promotion quest

Those triumphs against Gloucestershire and Derbyshire have reignited belief that Yorkshire can fulfill their pre-season billing as title favourites.

The bookmakers are not often wrong, but even their confidence must have waned when Yorkshire went winless in the season’s first half, registering five draws to go with two defeats.

What a difference a 10-day period makes, with the two wins catapulting Yorkshire up the Second Division table.

It should be pointed out, at the risk of getting carried away, that the club has won only six Championship matches in two-and-a-half years – three of them against Derbyshire and two against Gloucestershire, the other against perennial yo-yo club Worcestershire.

But the emphatic nature of the last two performances, crushing innings wins both, suggests that Yorkshire are good enough to return to Division One.

It is a feeling shared by Ben Coad, the pace bowler who sealed the triumph against Derbyshire with a six-wicket haul in the hosts’ second innings.

“The way we’ve played these last two weeks, if we carry that on through August and September, there’s no reason why we can’t go up and even win the league,” said Coad.

“They’re two of the best performances we’ve had, two demolitions.

“Obviously, it’s not ideal that there’s a bit of a break now in the Championship, but hopefully we can carry this momentum forward.

“If we can take it into the T20s coming up, and the 50-over comp, hopefully we can have a big push at the end when the August and September Championship games come round.”

Those games are against Sussex at Scarborough (August 22-25); Middlesex at Headingley (August 29-September 1); Leicestershire at Grace Road (September 9-12); Glamorgan at Cardiff (September 17-20), and Northamptonshire at Headingley (September 26-29).

It highlights, for the umpteenth time, the absurd nature of the Championship schedule, with that run of five fixtures in quick succession following a sequence of seven off the reel at the start of the season, with the last two fixtures sandwiched in between the white-ballmatches.

Although Coad did not directly criticise the schedule, he hinted that the back injury he suffered in the sixth of those games at the start of the year, against Sussex at Hove, was a direct result of the physical demands that are put on players – not helped by his own desire to bowl as much as possible in a bid to help the team.

The Derbyshire game was his first since that fixture at Hove in mid-May, not that one would have known it from his performance.

“I think the injury was basically over-load from the first six games, bowling quite a lot,” he said.

“Unfortunately, there was a tear in the muscle; I think I bowled 40 overs in those two days at Sussex, and I think it was probably a bit too many.

“I’ll never say ‘no’. I’ll always keep trying to come back and bowl, which probably is a bit of a negative about me, but it was just a few too many overs probably.”

Aged 30, Coad should be just about at the peak of his powers, and there is no doubt that he is one of the best in the business in English cricket.

His record stands up with anyone playing – 274 first-class wickets at an average of 19.96, and there are many who feel he could do a job for England.

Coad’s 6-30 at Chesterfield was the second-best return of his first-class career after his 6-25 against Lancashire at Headingley in 2017.

One wonders if he feels he is still improving; there is no reason why he cannot continue to perform for many more years.

“In some ways, yes,” he said. “Obviously, I’m not as fresh as I was when I first started, but I think my skill levels are as good as they’ve ever been, so I’m very happy with where I am as a cricketer.

“I’m very happy with how I’ve bowled this year up to now. That was the first five-for, but I’ve felt really good, so hopefully the body stays intact and I can keep it going.”

Coad had the ball on the proverbial piece of string at the Queen’s Park ground.

As Ottis Gibson, the Yorkshire head coach, put it afterwards, “his method is very simple in that he just runs in and puts the ball on a length and asks questions”.

It’s just that Coad does that so very, very well, a consummate professional who makes the difficult look easy.