“We’re not far away” - Yorkshire CCC head coach Anthony McGrath on victory quest
Somerset v Yorkshire ANTHONY McGRATH believes Yorkshire are “not far away” from their first win of the season as they look to record it against Somerset at Taunton.
Yorkshire go into Friday’s game having drawn two and lost one of their three County Championship matches to date, leaving them ninth in the formative First Division table – one place and one point above a Hampshire side who beat them at Headingley.
McGrath, the Yorkshire head coach, said that he saw enough positive signs when his side drew with Sussex at Headingley on Monday to suggest that they are close to getting on the board as they prepare to face a Somerset outfit who are second in the table after two wins and a draw – one point behind leaders Warwickshire with a game in hand.
“Obviously we haven’t won yet, but we’re not far away,” said McGrath. “We were very disappointed with the performance when we lost to Hampshire a couple of weeks ago.
“We asked for a response from that game and I certainly think we got that against Sussex. There were some really good signs. Given the pitch we played on and how we went about it, I think if we continue in that manner and keep looking for ways to find wickets and runs, we won’t be far away.
“Hopefully, we will take a lot of confidence from that game into the match at Somerset.”
That Yorkshire are still hunting their first win of the campaign reinforces McGrath’s view that victories are hard to come by in Division One.
Yorkshire won only four of their 14 Championship games last year – still the joint third-highest number in the top flight despite the fact that they finished seventh in the table.
“I keep saying it, but it is hard to get results in Division One if you play on good pitches, and that's what it should be like,” added McGrath. “It should be a good test. In Division One last week the games were all draws, so you don’t get handed wins by any means.
“You’ve got to earn the right to win. But I think if we keep going about it as we are, that win will come because it was a much better showing last week.”
McGrath was particularly pleased with his side’s batting performance, having called for more first innings runs prior to the match.
Yorkshire made 511 of them in response to Sussex’s 502, with Fin Bean and Sam Whiteman scoring hundreds and Joe Root contributing 96 in his first first-class innings since the Sydney Test.
In their four Championship innings prior to the Sussex game, Yorkshire had neither reached 240 nor batted for as long as 70 overs, unacceptable numbers in McGrath’s eyes.
“First innings runs is big for us because it then allows our bowlers to get to work with the attack that we’ve got,” he said. “That’s how we can bat, the way we batted against Sussex, and I think that was the frustration for the first two weeks.
“With the batting line-up we've got, not to bat past 70 overs in four innings was not ideal.
“You can put up with it once, maybe, or twice sometimes in April, but four times? Obviously, it helped having Joe back and Jonny (Bairstow) as well against Sussex, but all the batters contributed and it showed that with our lower order too – people like Dom Bess, Logan van Beek and Jhye Richardson – that it’s a very strong batting line-up.”
Yorkshire (from): Bairstow (capt), Bean, Bess, Cliff, Hill, Luxton, Lyth, Moriarty, Revis, Richardson, Root, van Beek, Wharton, White, Whiteman.