Nottinghamshire v Yorkshire: Pressure off Yorkshire ahead of crunch title decider with Notts

LV County Championship

YORKSHIRE boss Martyn Moxon has turned up the heat on County Championship leaders Nottinghamshire by insisting: "It's their title to lose."

Moxon takes his side to Trent Bridge today knowing Yorkshire must win to retain a realistic hope of claiming the trophy.

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Yorkshire are 25 points behind Nottinghamshire with two games to play and must collect a minimum of two more points than their opponents to ensure the title race goes into the final round of games.

It will be a tall order for Yorkshire to pull it off from here, but Moxon believes the pressure is all on Nottinghamshire as his third-placed team look to come from behind.

"It's their title to lose now," said the former Yorkshire and England opening batsman.

"The pressure is all on Nottinghamshire and we're going down there with no pressure on us.

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"The way I see it, we can go there and play with freedom knowing no one expects us to win the Championship.

"It's clearly a must-win game from our point of view, but we've got nothing to lose and everything to gain."

Yorkshire are not the only side chasing Nottinghamshire's coat tails.

Somerset, three points above Yorkshire in second place, could also steal the prize – as theoretically could Lancashire, their opponents this week at Taunton.

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But there is surely no better time for Yorkshire to be playing Nottinghamshire.

Chris Read's men missed an opportunity to put Yorkshire well out of Championship contention last week by losing their game in hand against Durham on Friday.

And they suffered a further blow to morale 24 hours later when they crashed to a seven-wicket defeat against Warwickshire to miss out on a place in the Clydesdale Bank 40 League semi-finals.

"Hopefully we can take advantage of that," said Moxon.

"Nottinghamshire have lost a couple of games lately and that will only increase the pressure on their shoulders.

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"At the same time, they're a very strong team and they're not top of the table for nothing.

"We've got every respect for them and we know we'll have to be at our very best to get a result."

The size of Yorkshire's task was illustrated when Nottinghamshire had the better of the meeting between the teams at Headingley Carnegie last month.

Yorkshire got out of jail when rain washed out the final session of the match, with Nottinghamshire well-placed to record a handsome victory.

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Although Yorkshire need to win ahead of their final game of the season against Kent at Headingley Carnegie on Monday, Moxon pledged they would not throw caution to the wind at Trent Bridge.

He believes they first of all have to earn the right to play.

"We know it's a must-win game but we won't be going there with a gung-ho attitude," he added.

"You've got to first of all win the right to attack.

"All we can do is go into the fixture with a positive attitude and see where that takes us.

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"But the first day potentially is very important; it's vital we give ourselves a really good base for the rest of the game."

Yorkshire will have Ajmal Shahzad available after the pace bowler was released from England's Twenty20 squad as cover for Stuart Broad.

Shahzad missed the seven-wicket defeat against Essex in the Clydesdale Bank 40 League on Saturday after being drafted into the squad when Broad complained of a groin injury.

But the Nottinghamshire pace bowler was fit to play in Sunday's five-wicket win against Pakistan in Cardiff and is set to play in the second game between the sides this evening.

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And although Shahzad was named in England's squad for the five-match one-day series against Pakistan that starts on Friday, he will stay with Yorkshire unless there is an injury in the England camp, meaning he is also available for Saturday's CB 40 semi-final against Warwickshire at Scarborough.

Yorkshire will be without fellow pace bowler Tim Bresnan for the all-important run-in, however, while the Twenty20/one-day series has also deprived Nottinghamshire of Ryan Sidebottom and Graeme Swann.

Going into the last two weeks of an intriguing campaign, Yorkshire have done magnificently well to remain in contention in two competitions.

And Moxon believes whatever the outcome of the final few fixtures, his team have done the county proud.

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"I think whatever happens now you'd have to say we've done very well this summer," he said.

"A young side have surpassed most people's expectations and it's a tremendous credit to the way they've performed.

"At the same time, we're extremely keen to finish on a high and the fact is we've still got a chance of winning two trophies.

"We've got to be very happy with that state of affairs and it's a prospect the lads are really looking forward to."

Key fixtures in title challenge

Today-Friday

Nottinghamshire v Yorkshire at Trent Bridge

Somerset v Lancashire at Taunton

September 13-16

Yorkshire v Kent at Headingley Carnegie

Durham v Somerset at Chester-le-Street

Lancashire v Nottinghamshire at Old Trafford