Steve Patterson has spoken of his pride at leading Yorkshire in the absence of Gary Ballance.
Patterson, 34, is deputising due to Ballance’s personal problems, although the latter could return in tomorrow’s Royal London one-day Cup clash with Leicestershire at the Fischer County Ground, Grace Road, but not as captain.
It is a role which seamer Patterson, who will captain for the rest of the RL50, has had little previous experience of, only skippering Yorkshire’s second-team and Academy on a handful of occasions.
He has led the Vikings for the first half of their one-day Cup campaign, overseeing two defeats, one win and yesterday’s washout against champions Nottinghamshire at Emerald Headingley.
“Andrew Gale came to me and said ‘You’re a senior player, you know the game very well, you understand it. Could you do it for a period of time while Gary’s not around?’,” he explained.
“I said ‘Absolutely, no problem’.
“I’m not sure (how long it will continue), and it’s not something I’ve thought about.
“I’ll keep doing it until I’m told Gary is ready and then move aside.
“It’s an honour. It’s a club I’ve played for since I was 15 or 16 years of age. It’s a long time – pretty much half my life.
“I haven’t really done captaincy before, but I’d like to think the input and support I’ve given whoever has been captain has stood me in good stead for the decisions I’ve made over the last few games.
“I’ve always been interested in the captaincy.
“It’s a funny feeling when you’re out there, having never done it before, and things are tough like they were against Worcester. You sometimes question yourself and wonder how much you could have done different to make the outcome better for us.
“As long as you make smart and logical decisions, you just have to accept that whatever happens happens. If you take it all to heart, it would be quite a lonely place to be.”
Patterson continued: “I’d like to think I’m a pretty logical captain and calm under pressure. I don’t think I’m someone who gets flustered out in the middle.
“At this stage, with it being early doors, I’m maybe a little bit safer or more predictable than some captains would be had they done it for a long time.
“We’ve had some younger bowlers in the team, and I think you’ve got to try and give them the confidence. You don’t want to put extra pressure on.
“But we’ll have Liam (Plunkett) back now for the rest of the comp and if we get Dave (Willey) back, we’ll have some senior players back. We might then be in a position to get a little bit more aggressive.”
Patterson believes Yorkshire have to win three, maybe even all four, of their remaining North Group games to secure a top three finish and qualification for the knockouts.
He added: “The group on a whole is very tough.
“You look at your bigger first division counties like Notts, Lancs and Warwickshire, who are strong throughout because they have big squads.
“Then some of what you class as the smaller counties, they put a big emphasis on white ball cricket. As a result, they are very strong in this format.
“It sounds a cliche, but every game is tough, and we have to be at our best. Unfortunately, we have shown that we’ve been slightly off it and have been punished.”
Team news
Gary Ballance, who was granted some time away from the game by the Club last week, comes back into the side as a batsman which allows Steven Patterson to continue with the captaincy duties throughout the Royal London One-Day Cup competition.
Jonny Tattersall, who scored his third ever 2nd XI Championship hundred (132) against Warwickshire this week, is handed the gloves as a result of his consistency in 2018.
Left-arm orthodox Karl Carver also comes into contention for the trip to Grace Road.
13-man squad to face Leicestershire Foxes.
Gary Ballance
Tim Bresnan
Harry Brook
Karl Carver
Ben Coad
Matthew Fisher
Tom Kohler-Cadmore
Adam Lyth
Steven Patterson ©
Liam Plunkett
Cheteshwar Pujara
Adil Rashid
Jonny Tattersall (WK)
Yorkshire One-Day cup statistics
Match statistics
- Yorkshire have won all of the last four List A matches between these two counties.
- Leicestershire have won seven of their last ten List A matches against Yorkshire at Leicester.
- Yorkshire’s score of 376 for three at Leicester in 2016 is it’s highest total against any first-class county in all List A cricket.
- Travis Head’s 175 at Leicester in 2016 is Yorkshire’s second highest innings in all List A matches. The third-wicket stand of 274 which he shared with Jack Leaning (131 not out) is Yorkshire’s highest partnership for any wicket in all List A cricket.
- The feat of scoring a half-century and taking four wickets in a List A match has been achieved by only one player for either county in these matches. In 2001 Michael Vaughan scored 92 and took for for 46.
Milestones
Potential batting milestones in Leicestershire v Yorkshire on 27th May 2018
EJH Eckersley needs 24 runs to reach 1000 runs in List A matches
JA Leaning needs 47 runs to reach 1000 runs in List A matches
AJ Hodd needs 66 runs to reach 1000 runs in List A matches
EJH Eckersley needs 82 runs to reach 500 runs in List A matches at Leicester
ML Pettini needs 100 runs to reach 500 runs in List A matches against Yorkshire
ML Pettini needs 118 runs to reach 500 runs in List A matches at Leicester
MJ Cosgrove needs 129 runs to reach 4500 runs in List A matches
JM Bairstow needs 130 runs to reach 3500 runs in List A matches
Potential bowling milestones in Leicestershire v Yorkshire on 27th May 2018
NJ Dexter needs 3 wickets to reach 50 wickets in List A matches
Azeem Rafiq needs 7 wickets to reach 50 wickets in List A matches
Competition standings
Competition statistics
The opposition
Specsavers County Championship Division Two: ninth.
Royal London One-Day Cup – North Group. 2017: sixth.
Vitality Blast – North Group. 2017 – fourth. Quarter-final: lost to Glamorgan in Cardiff.
Captain: Michael Carberry.
Head Coach: Paul Nixon.
Overseas players: Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Nabi, Cameron Delport, Varun Aaron.
Other ins and outs: In: Tom Taylor (Derbyshire), Ateeq Javid (Warwickshire). Out: Clint McKay (overseas)
