Nottinghamshire v Yorkshire: Yorkshire must develop a killer instinct to mount title challenge

The county’s director of professional cricket said it was a yardstick by which his team could be measured.

Moxon was not at Trent Bridge for last week’s re-match, preferring to cast an eye over the Yorkshire Second XI, who lost to Nottinghamshire at Barnsley.

But he was correct to conclude the Championship double-header would tell us much about Yorkshire’s capacity to challenge.

It is a capacity which, at various stages of both games, looked perfectly realistic.

Yorkshire dominated for two days at Headingley Carnegie only to lose by 58 runs after Nottinghamshire recovered from minus 26-6 in their second innings.

They dominated for the best part of three days at Trent Bridge only to let Nottinghamshire off the hook once more as the home team improbably saved the follow-on.

Yorkshire had to content themselves with a draw – although the loss of the morning session to rain on the final day would have made it difficult for them to win in any case.

Yorkshire have, therefore, produced a mixed bag for Moxon and the coaching staff to analyse and ponder.

On the evidence of the Nottinghamshire fixtures (and it remains to be seen whether Nottinghamshire are quite the yardstick they were last season), Yorkshire undoubtedly have the talent to challenge.

That is borne out by the fact they had their opponents on the ropes in both games and played some splendid cricket at times.

But it is clear they will have to show greater consistency and killer instinct to win the title.

A return of one win, a draw and two defeats would seem a fair reflection of Yorkshire’s efforts during the opening quarter of the Championship campaign.

Paradoxically, the good news for Yorkshire is they have still to fully fire.

Although they have performed well at times, they have not yet constructed the complete performance.

Once they do, there is no reason they cannot derive the confidence to go and replicate – or even eclipse – last year’s achievement of finishing third.

Certainly the Championship looks wonderfully wide open, with any number of sides having designs on the crown.

Having begun their title defence with three straight wins, Nottinghamshire were simply grateful to get out of this game with their unbeaten run intact.

Without Charlie Shreck (knee), Darren Pattinson (hamstring) and Andy Carter (abdominal strain), and with star man Andre Adams able to bowl only nine overs due to an elbow injury, Nottinghamshire’s bowling department was severely decimated.

Yorkshire took advantage in making 534-9 declared in their first innings only for Nottinghamshire – at one stage 291-8 – to somehow lift themselves up to and beyond the 385 needed to avoid the follow-on.

The home team rallied to 428 on the back of a brutal ninth-wicket stand of 114 between Ben Phillips and Adams, who proceeded at just under seven runs an over to restrict the first innings deficit to 106.

Yorkshire went into the final day on 17-0 in their second innings, with the game apparently going nowhere.

It was further shepherded in that direction by grey clouds that dispensed rain over Trent Bridge, meaning play did not start until 1.20pm.

When Adam Lyth and Joe Sayers walked out to bat, the ground was bathed in watery sunshine.

But it was always going to be one of those pointless exercises in running down the clock, with only a smattering of spectators present to watch the last rites – some with blocks of seating to themselves.

There are always personal statistics to be improved in such circumstances, and Lyth and Sayers set about improving theirs.

The openers added 114 in the first innings and managed 92 second time around before Lyth skied a poor delivery from Steven Mullaney to Mark Wagh at deep mid-wicket.

Lyth played well for 52 but would have been disappointed with the manner of his dismissal as he eyed the short leg-side boundary to the Bridgford Road side.

Sayers made 45 before being bowled by Samit Patel in the 42nd over, the left-arm spinner getting the odd one to turn and grip from the Radcliffe Road end. Joe Root (nine) and Andrew Gale (six) then combined before Gale declared at 4.20pm with Yorkshire 113-2.

The declaration helped eradicate an over-rate of minus two and saw leg-spinner Adil Rashid and Root open the bowling at the start of the Nottinghamshire second innings.

Nottinghamshire reached 31-0 in the 13 overs possible, Wagh scoring 25 and Neil Edwards six before the teams shook hands at 5.00pm.

Alex Hales would have been unable to bat for Nottinghamshire after it was confirmed he has suffered a broken jaw.

Hales was struck on the grille by a short delivery from Ajmal Shahzad on the third afternoon, and although he resumed his innings after retiring hurt, an X-ray on Friday night revealed the fracture.

He is expected to be out for at least four weeks.