Spicy pitches worth the gamble says Yorkshire CCC head coach Anthony McGrath

McGrath’s reign has started with two results at the ground in a clear attempt to buck a trend that had seen eight of the previous nine matches there drawn.

His side thumped Worcestershire by 504 runs last month - the biggest win by a runs margin in the County Championship – and suffered a five-wicket defeat to Warwickshire on Sunday.

Yorkshire are striving to improve a poor record generally at Headingley, where they have won two of their last 19 Championship matches to go with five defeats and 12 draws, and McGrath said they want to take the positive option in terms of the surfaces.

“I think we’ve got to,” he said. “And, if you do that, then you’ve got to be prepared to be on the losing end.

“We've all known about the draws here, and it's not very exciting, but I think we've had two really good games (against Worcestershire and Warwickshire).

“It proves that you can get results, and, speaking to the Warwickshire group, I think they thought it was a good cricket wicket as well.”

A notable aspect of the two games at Headingley so far has been the pace and carry, with head of grounds Richard Robinson and his team leaving more grass on.

It begs the question why Yorkshire have not made more use of this strategy before, given the oft-expressed frustrations of the previous regime, but it has made for a better, if briefer watch, with both games finishing inside three days.

“I don’t think there are any regulations on it really (the amount of grass left on),” added McGrath.

“Obviously, if it becomes unsafe, or it seams too much, that’s different, but I think Robbo’s been here a long time, and he’s been superb so far.

“I think the grass just helps with the carry. Obviously, we're just into May, so it's going to do probably more than it would mid-season, but, again, if you batted well on it you could get runs, and if you bowled well there were wickets in it.”

McGrath’s principal concern is that his side develop greater consistency. It has been an indifferent start to life in the top-flight, with Yorkshire having won one, drawn one and lost two ahead of back-to-back trips to Essex and Surrey.

“We didn’t play that well,” said McGrath of the last match. “I think the Worcester game obviously we did, but I'd much rather be in games like those than in four-day draws.

“We spoke about it as a group and said that we want to be playing in games where there's going to be a result, so you're going to have to cop the odd one, but, again, if we’d played better (against Warwickshire) we’d have won.

“If you don't win at home, you’ll struggle to win trophies, and that's ultimately what we’re trying to do.”

McGrath’s comments were echoed by Ian Westwood, the Warwickshire first-team coach.

“The pitch made for a good game of cricket and it was really exciting,” he said. “You needed some luck to score runs, but good players find a way to put runs on the board, and it was the same for both teams.”

Victory was a feather in the cap for Westwood’s men against a Yorkshire side that boasted 298 Test caps compared to their three, and which included Joe Root and Harry Brook.

“They were very experienced with lots of international caps and a lot of quality in there, so we knew it was going to be hard,” he added.

“We spoke a lot about not playing the names before the game, and I think the lads did that really well.”