Yorkshire Must Improve in Pro40

David Byas
By JMB
August 17 2006

David Byas has called for greater commitment from Yorkshire ahead of the floodlit Pro40 clash with the Derbyshire Phantoms. With two heavy defeats from their first two matches, Yorkshire are propping up the Division II table and unless they can turn their form around they can forget about promotion.

Byas conceded that Yorkshire "never even joined the party" at Cheltenham on Sunday when they crashed by eight wickets to Gloucestershire Gladiators who won with 16.1 overs to spare. They were just as poor the previous Sunday at Scarborough, being bowled out for 96 to bring Leicestershire Foxes victory by 167 runs with 13.3 overs still to go.

"There seemed to be two different matches on the same pitch at Cheltenham where we were simply outplayed," said Byas. "Craig White batted well for his unbeaten 69 but once again received no support and our pacemen then bowled too wide and gave Gloucestershire every opportunity to get off to a rapid start. When our spinners came on they did not present the same problems that Ian Fisher and Martyn Ball had caused for our batsmen earlier in the game."

Byas said that not everyone had been fully committed in recent matches and he expected everyone to stand up and be counted, otherwise he would look to the future by giving more of the younger players a chance. He does not have many options to choose from at the moment with pace bowlers Tim Bresnan, Ajmal Shahzad and Mitch Claydon all out injured and leg-spinner, Adil Rashid, playing for England Under 19s in the three-match Test series against India Under 19s.

Matthew Wood remains in the squad, despite his first ball dismissal down at Cheltenham, but his place could be at risk from Andrew Gale, while leg spinner, Mark Lawson, may get the vote over off-spinner Richard Dawson.

Yorkshire Phoenix - (from): White, Sayers, McGrath, Lumb, Lehmann, Gale, Wood, Dawson, Brophy, Lawson, Patterson, Kruis, Gillespie.