Returning Root will have to bat at No 7, jokes triumphant Yorkshire coach Gale

Adam Lyth of Yorkshire raises his bat after scoring a century at Old Trafford. (Photo by Nathan Stirk/ Getty Images)

Yorkshire beat Lancashire by 16 runs at Old Trafford yesterday after scoring 379-7 from their 50 overs, their highest one-day total against a first-class county, before dismissing Lancashire for 363.

Yorkshire will confirm their place in the quarter-final play-offs if they beat Northamptonshire in their final group match at Emerald Headingley tomorrow, for which England Test captain Joe Root is available.

Now first-team coach Gale is calling on his players to seal the deal as the club continue their pursuit of a first one-day trophy since 2002.

“I don’t like talking about cup finals, and what have you, but we can take a lot of confidence from the way that we’ve played recently and we’re pretty positive we can go on our own patch and win,” said Gale.

“We can still improve our game going forward, in particular our fielding, but we’re managing to find a way at the moment and are playing some really good one-day cricket.

“It will be good to have Joe Root back; he jokingly sent me a text halfway through the Lancashire game and said, ‘Will I still be getting a game on Thursday?’.

“I said, ‘Yes, so long as you’re willing to bat at No 7’, but, in all seriousness, he’s really up for it and can’t wait to get going.”

Yorkshire have only once scored a larger one-day total than they managed in Manchester: 411-6 against Minor County side Devon at Exmouth in 2004.

Their 379-7 featured a career-best 144 from Adam Lyth and 131 from England one-day star David Willey and eclipsed their previous best against a first-class county of 376-3 against Leicestershire at Grace Road two years ago.

“It was some of the best batting I’ve seen in one-day cricket,” said Gale. “The partnership between Lyth and Willey was top of the range.”

Yorkshire’s score was also the highest Lancashire have conceded in one-day cricket, surpassing the 360-9 made by Hampshire at Old Trafford in 2014.

The match aggregate of 742 runs was the highest in which Yorkshire have been involved in a one-day game, beating the 690 scored in the Exmouth fixture.