Yorkshire CCC: We were gutted by the Durham loss and must learn the lessons – Gale

AT THE halfway stage of the Twenty20 Blast, I have got to say we were really disappointing in our game with Durham at Headingley in midweek.

We were gutted and all a bit shellshocked in the dressing room over what happened. In our tweets, me, Bresy and Dizzy were brutally honest about it. We were sorry for the people who turned up as it wasn’t good enough from a Yorkshire team.

Having had a bit of time to think about it, it’s about putting it behind us now.

It was uncharacteristic of us to perform like that. Maybe the pressure got to us a little bit and we will work on that.

Looking at us, maybe on fast pitches, we are a really good side. But on slower ones, we have got to find a way of making big scores and chasing totals down. That didn’t happen against Durham or Notts last weekend as well.

We have to be a bit more positive and execute our options. You look around the dressing room and everyone is capable of doing it. It’s not a skill thing, more a mental one.

Saying that, we are still sat in a good position and can qualify for the quarter-finals – and feel we can go on even further. We are also at the top of the County Championship, so all is not lost.

I have said all along that Twenty20 is about momentum and confidence and if we get that at the right stage of the competition, there’s no reason why we can’t go on and win it. Games that we have lost are definitely ones we should not have been beaten in, but won. Ones where we have got ourselves to blame.

It’s about being a bit more ruthless and capitalising on those cheap periods of play we should be winning.

To restrict Durham to 120-odd was a really good effort and while we probably thought it would be a tough chase, we thought we’d win at a canter and spoke at the halfway point about being positive and going out and doing it in the first six overs and I felt we did when we were 47-2.

We’d broken the back of the target, but after that we were just like rabbits in headlights and put ourselves under pressure.

From six overs, it should have been an easy game at five an over. You expect to chase that in County Championship cricket, never mind Twenty20 cricket.

Looking at the win over Leicestershire, it represented a total contrast from the Durham game. We were good and put 170 on the board and defended it and the fielding and bowling was excellent.

I got a decent knock and Twenty20 has always been my forte and it’s where I have always excelled and been among the top five or ten in the country. But for whatever reason, I have just not got out of the blocks as I would have really liked consistently.

There’s been no consistent rhythm in my batting in Twenty20 cricket. In that respect, the knock against Leicester was nice, but then I didn’t bat well against Durham and it put a dampener on things as we all know we should have picked up the two points.

Obviously, everyone was so disappointed about the Roses game being rained off last week – a full house at Headingley is what you play for. To be washed out, especially for the club given the financial difficulties over the last few years was so disappointing with 16,000 people waiting around for the weather to improve and it didn’t.

Next week sees England start their Test series against India and it will be a tough series as India are an improving side away, even though people just seem to talk about them being good at home.

England will have to play some good cricket, probably better than anything they did against Sri Lanka, to get something out of the series. I think it will be tight, maybe a draw.

I think India will have learned from last time here and have the bit between their teeth to prove they are not a one-dimensional side.

The Tour de France has started in Yorkshire this weekend and there’s about ten of us at Yorkshire due in the Millennium Square today and we are all looking forward to it.

Although it will depend as my wife is due to give birth and I might be there, I might not. We’ll see.

I am a big cycling fan and have done a couple of charity bike rides – including 400 miles across America in five days – and it’s fantastic the tour is in Leeds. it’s massive for the city and fantastic to see and the work Gary Verity has done at Welcome to Yorkshire has been brilliant.

It’s one of the biggest sporting events in the world and to have it in Leeds is fantastic. People would be daft not to get into it.

***Our exclusive Andrew Gale column is in association with Blacks Solicitors***