Ben Coad sees no reason why Yorkshire can’t challenge for the Specsavers County Championship title after their stunning 123-run win over Surrey at Scarborough.
Coad starred on the final day of the clash with 48 from number 10 with the bat in Yorkshire’s second innings to set up a Surrey target of 318 in 83 overs.
He then claimed 2-30 from 14 overs with the ball, striking twice as Surrey lost three wickets in five balls before tea to slip from 157-2 to 157-5.
Surrey ended being bowled out for 194 with only 10 balls of the contest remaining, with Yorkshire ending a run of four defeats at North Marine Road.
This was Yorkshire’s third win from eight matches this season and leaves them third in Division One behind Essex and leaders Somerset.
The gap to Somerset is now 36 points.
Those two counties are Yorkshire’s next two opponents, starting with Essex at Chelmsford from Sunday.
“As long as we keep putting performances like that in, there’s no reason at all why we won’t be there and thereabouts come the end of the year,” said Coad, 25.
“If we keep fighting as we have done this week, we can be towards the top of the table.
“Essex and Somerset are the two sides performing well, but we’re playing them at the best time we could ask for. We’re playing some really good cricket.
“We know it will be low-scoring at Essex, but we back our bowlers all the way.”
The three quick wickets before tea saw Yorkshire remove South African Test opener Dean Elgar run out for 71 before Coad, in the final over of the afternoon, had England Test duo Ben Foakes and Sam Curran for ducks.
It meant Surrey needed 159 from 33 overs after tea.
Coad said: “Leading up to that, we stayed patient and kept things dry. We made the run-rate get to nearly five an over. That’s the sort of thing that put pressure on them if they wanted to win the game. Then we do strike and hunt as a pack.
“Once we get the first one, we strive hard for the next couple in quick succession.
“We stuck at it really hard there.
“We knew another 20 or 30 runs this morning would be massive for us, but to get 50 meant we really took the momentum with us.
“People are calling me an all-rounder now for some reason!
“I know my role batting is to score runs quickly. That’s how I’ll help the team. If I stick around, there will be a ball with my name on it. Thankfully, I got a few balls to score off.
“Then they batted really well first up, but we kept saying, ‘Stay patient, chances will come. Once we get one, we’ll get a few’.
“Thankfully we got a soft one with the run out (Elgar), which started the ball rolling.
“I just think we deserved that win for how hard we stuck at it.”