Victory crucial with duo looking for recovery from Dutch defeats

Normally, but not always.

As Yorkshire and Derbyshire discovered to their cost, the Dutch are capable of springing a surprise or two.

They beat Yorkshire by two runs at Headingley on Easter Sunday and then achieved a 13-run win at Derby the following day.

Those results will certainly add spice to the meeting of Yorkshire and Derbyshire at Headingley today (1.45pm start).

Following a dire start to their respective CB40 campaigns, another defeat would represent a serious blow.

That is particularly true in the case of Yorkshire, who would expect to beat Derbyshire nine times out of 10.

With all due respect to the East Midlands club, they remain one of the least glamorous on the county circuit; the Ugly Sisters to Yorkshire’s Cinderella.

If Yorkshire are to “come to the ball”, however, they need to improve significantly on their efforts so far.

It has been a tough start to the season for Andrew Gale and his players, who have yet to do themselves justice.

Yorkshire might well have lost their opening County Championship match of the season at relegation favourites Worcestershire before recovering to win by nine wickets.

They then suffered successive Championship home defeats to Durham and Nottinghamshire before the Netherlands debacle capped a calamitous few days.

Since Easter Sunday, however, Yorkshire have been without a first team game.

They were not involved in the latest round of Championship fixtures and opted to rest the majority of their first team squad for the three-day friendly at Durham University, instead of giving some of those players some extra match practice.

That decision was taken with one eye firmly on a May schedule which sees Yorkshire play five Championship and four CB40 games and travel to Nottingham, Canterbury, Liverpool, Worcester, Taunton and Hove along the way.

In short, those players are going to be busy over the next few weeks.

On reflection, the break came at just the right time for Yorkshire.

They looked physically and emotionally drained after the Netherlands match, which was perhaps understandable.

That game came just two days after the Nottinghamshire defeat – one of the most shattering in Yorkshire’s history.

Gale’s players were all over the champions for the first two days only to lose by 58 runs after Nottinghamshire fought back from effectively minus 26-6 in their second innings.

After the Netherlands game, Gale denied there was a hangover from the Championship match.

But those players would hardly be human if they were not feeling just a little bit queasy.

Indeed, it is impossible to conceive of a Yorkshire team in anything like the right frame of mind losing to the Dutch.

The Nottinghamshire match surely took something out of them – perhaps intangible to the naked eye, but tangible nevertheless and sufficient to allow the Netherlands to pull off one of the biggest results in their history.

A new week, however, brings a new dawn for Gale and his team.

The captain’s message to his players will surely be: “The season starts now”.

It is a season that has the best part of five months to run and one that could yet be successful for Yorkshire cricket.

At the same time, Yorkshire know they must get their act together quickly going into a breakneck period when they cannot afford to drop off the pace.

After today’s match, they face the return Championship match against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge, starting on Wednesday.

It represents a great chance for Yorkshire to get that Nottinghamshire defeat out of their system at a ground where they produced one of their best displays last summer, beating the eventual champions by five wickets on the back of a brilliant hundred by Gale.

And despite Nottinghamshire’s remarkable comeback at Headingley, they looked vulnerable in several areas.

Yorkshire certainly have nothing to be scared of and are capable of going to Trent Bridge and getting a result.

To do that, though, they need more consistency.

So far, Yorkshire have played very well at times and very badly at others.

One of the disadvantages of a young side is that the pendulum swings can be stark and unpredictable.

Young players are particularly prone to such peaks and dips in form – although, to their credit, those same young players achieved remarkable consistency for much of last season, helping Yorkshire to a third-placed Championship finish and to the CB40 semi-finals.

An obvious area Yorkshire must improve is their batting.

They have not scored 400 in any of their first three Championship games and have twice been bowled out for less than 150.

There have been times when Yorkshire have lost wickets in clusters – the dreaded problem that blighted them prior to last summer – and left the lower-order with too much to do.

It is nevertheless encouraging that the top-order – although at times guilty of clouded thinking – have not looked particularly out of form.

Let the season begin... again.

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