Another Disappointing Headingley Setback

For the third consecutive outing in the last couple of weeks, Yorkshire have failed to treat their home supporters at Headingley to a one-day triumph. Instead our complacent batsmen frittered away the advantage of winning the toss by collapsing needlessly to 45 for the loss of five wickets. Only a fine sixth wicket stand between Adil Rashid and Jack Leaning succeeded in creating a contest.

Unfortunately Yorkshire's tail proved to be as woefully inept as the top order flops and they capitulated much too easily, leaving the hosts about fifty-five runs short of an acceptable total. However, Gloucestershire staggered and stumbled their way towards their target, and it required Will Gidman to impressively steer the visitors to an important victory. Gidman enjoyed a very good day at the office, having earlier dismissed the under-achieving Lees and Williamson.

Hopefully the Yorkshire coach Jason Gillespie will be letting off steam about how his batsmen are so irritatingly inconsistent and seem totally unable to string two good performances together. At present, Yorkshire's limited overs campaigns can be characterized as one step forward, one step back. It is after all most annoying that the Tykes raise their performance so well when faced with the challenge of a trip to Old Trafford, only to slip back into mediocrity when Gloucestershire pay a visit to Leeds. The only consolation that can be derived from this miserable setback is that in their group in the Royal London One-Day Cup, seven teams have now played twice, and not one of them has accumulated maximum points. However this perhaps only renders the defeat today as all the more frustrating as the Tykes missed out on a golden opportunity to climb to the top of the group. Instead the white rose must win four of their remaining six contests in order to ensure qualification to the knockout stages. In all probability, if recent history is anything to go by, the rollercoaster Yorkshire team will struggle to amass a run of victories together and will possibly teeter on the boundary between qualification and elimination. Maybe Andrew Gale and chums should just play all their fifty-overs matches away from west Yorkshire.

YORKSHIRE versus Gloucestershire; at Headingley; Tuesday 29th July 2014. YORKSHIRE won the toss.

YORKSHIRE: 192 off 41.4 overs (Rashid 71, Leaning 56; Payne 3-31)

Gloucestershire: 193 for seven off 45.2 overs (Gidman 71*; Rashid 3-43)

Gloucestershire won by three wickets. YORKSHIRE 0 points, Gloucestershire 2 points.