Yorkshire v Sussex: Gillespie confident that opening defeat is just a blip for Yorkshire

IF people essentially fall into two categories, those of the glass half-full variety and those of the glass half-empty disposition, then Jason Gillespie’s glass is 50 per cent fully charged at all times.
Yorkshire's Gary BallanceYorkshire's Gary Ballance
Yorkshire's Gary Ballance

The Yorkshire first-team coach is one of the most positive characters you could wish to meet, and while his default tempo is best described as upbeat, Gillespie is a realist as well as an optimist.

After Yorkshire crashed to an innings defeat in their opening Championship match of the season, the Australian made no attempt to hide the fact his team had been soundly outplayed by Sussex.

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Yorkshire were second-best from the moment Andrew Gale lost the toss with the 19th-century coin presented to him to mark the club’s 150th anniversary, and there was never likely to be a way back for the home side after they were dismissed for 96 on the opening day, the visitors replying with 356 before Yorkshire made 248 second time round.

Clearly, the manner of defeat was something of a surprise, given all the pre-season optimism pervading Headingley, never mind the actuality of defeat itself – Yorkshire’s first in 19 Championship games dating back to August, 2011.

At the same time, that proud unbeaten run also highlighted why it would perhaps be as premature for Yorkshire’s supporters to read too much into one result as it would for those of Sussex to get too carried away; this was, after all, the first game of the season.

Gillespie neatly summarised events when he said that: “Sussex batted better than us and they bowled better than us, and when that happens you tend to go down in games”, but there was no hint of concern in the coach’s disposition.

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On the contrary, Gillespie spoke positively of the mood in the dressing room and expressed confidence that it was just a blip that Yorkshire have got out of their system.

“We’re incredibly disappointed with our performance in this game,” said Gillespie.

“We all know we can do a lot better than that.

“To get bowled out for 96 in our first innings was unacceptable, and we just didn’t execute our shots the way we should have.

“We’ve had a couple of really good chats as a team, with all of the lads contributing, and the batters put their hands up and admitted that it wasn’t good enough.

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“We know we’ve got work to do and we’re not hiding from that fact, but I’m really confident that our lads are in a pretty good place.

“There’s certainly no panic, or anything like that.

“We’ve had five months of really good pre-season, we went to Barbados and had a really good time there, and we came back and beat Leeds-Bradford in a three-day game.

“There’s been a lot of really good work and for us to start second-guessing ourselves after just one game would be premature.”

The last rites were administered swiftly on Saturday morning, Yorkshire losing their last two wickets in 25 minutes and 37 balls after resuming on 228-8.

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Gary Ballance – 46 overnight – went to his half-century by reverse-sweeping Monty Panesar to the boundary, the milestone achieved from 117 balls with six fours.

The left-hander was dropped on 54 by Ed Joyce at first slip off Chris Jordan but his partner, Jack Brooks, was not so fortunate, another edge off Jordan flying into the safe hands of Michael Yardy at second slip.

With Yorkshire still 12 runs shy of making Sussex bat again, Ballance, on 63, skied to mid-wicket, where wicketkeeper Ben Brown ran round to take the catch off Steve Magoffin, who finished with 5-51.

After scoring 112 against Leeds-Bradford, and with his star on the rise after being named in England’s provisional 30-man Champions Trophy squad, there are those who believe Ballance is batting too low at No 6, but Gillespie said Yorkshire were happy with their order.

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“We’re not going to start jumping at shadows and making wholesale changes after one match,” he added.

“You never say never but, at this stage, we’re very comfortable with the order. It didn’t fire in this game and we need to do better. It’s as simple as that.”

Although Yorkshire served up too many boundary balls when Sussex batted, there was mitigation in the fact that the bowlers – including debutants in Brooks and Liam Plunkett – perhaps over-strove at times in an effort to compensate for the paltry first innings score.

Once again, Gillespie insists there is more to come from the bowling group. “We bowled four good balls an over and then a couple of bad balls.

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“We were searching for wickets a little bit, but that can happen when you don’t put a first innings score on the board.

“Full credit to the Sussex batters; when we did stray, they put those balls away really well. But I’m very happy with our bowling attack and I just feel that, in general, we didn’t perform as well as we can.”

Yorkshire return to action tomorrow when they start a three-day practice game against Lancashire at Headingley.

The home side plan to use 13 players in the match, including England stars Joe Root and Tim Bresnan. Lancashire could utilise as many as 18.

Play starts at noon on day one and at 11.00am on days two and three. Admission is free.

Yorkshire return to Championship action on Wednesday week when they face Durham at Chester-le-Street.