Moxon sets target after Yorkshire move out of drop zone

Moxon has revealed the club are targeting a top-three finish after a six-wicket win over Worcestershire yesterday lifted them out of the relegation zone.

Yorkshire have won only two of their 10 Championship matches this summer – both against relegation rivals Worcestershire.

But Moxon believes a minimum of four victories from the last six games could be sufficient to propel Yorkshire from third-bottom to third-top – a gap currently of 50 points.

“What I want us to be looking at in the last six games is trying to get into the top-three,” said Moxon, the county’s director of professional cricket.

“We need to set out our stall to try to achieve that, and I don’t think we should be satisfied with simply trying to avoid relegation.

“The points are relatively close now; obviously Durham have got a bit of a lead at the top of the table and we haven’t got a chance of catching them.

“But it’s not unrealistic if we have a good last six games to finish third in the league.”

Warwickshire are third with 138 points from nine matches.

Yorkshire have 88 points from 10 games and will have Jacques Rudolph back for the rest of the season, the South African batsman set to make his comeback in next Wednesday’s Championship match against Lancashire at Headingley.

Yorkshire’s win at Scarborough took them above Worcestershire, who are second-bottom and in the final relegation place with 75 points from nine games.

Yorkshire have still to play Lancashire, Sussex, Warwickshire and Somerset at home, plus Hampshire and Warwickshire away.

“Jacques’s arrival will certainly give us a boost, while this victory will give us a lot of confidence,” added Moxon. “We’ve got some tough games ahead and we’ll have to play well, but we want to be looking upwards rather than downwards.”

Some of the gloss was taken off Yorkshire’s triumph at North Marine Road when they were docked two points for a slow over-rate.

“It’s an issue we’ve got to deal with,” admitted Moxon. “We’ve been flirting with it most games and need to be better.

“There’s no excuse, quite honestly. We should be able to bowl 16 overs an hour.”