Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Last night’s five-wicket star Will O’Rourke plays his last game of the season for Yorkshire at Chesterfield tomorrow.
As one overseas Will departs after a trip to Chesterfield tomorrow, the other Will has extended his stay with Yorkshire for a bit longer through until the start of next month. And Anthony McGrath has hailed the impact of Messrs O’Rourke and Sutherland over the last couple of months.
White Rose head coach McGrath has been impressed with what both men have offered on and off the pitch.
So far, New Zealand fast bowler O’Rourke has taken 14 wickets in nine Vitality Blast matches, including a pair of three-wicket hauls and a brilliant 5-22 in last night’s win over Worcestershire Rapids at Headingley. The 23-year-old also took two wickets in his only County Championship appearance against Nottinghamshire.
“Will’s bought into everything,” said McGrath, ahead of tomorrow’s clash with Derbyshire Falcons at Chesterfield (2.30pm).
“He’s run in every game, and his T20 performances have got better and better.
“I don’t think his figures reflected how he went about it in the Championship game. He was unselfish in terms of what we asked him to do. We knew that after the new ball, it was about trying to be aggressive and using the short stuff.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Will O’Rourke is congratulated upon taking his fifth wicket against Worcestershire last night.
“He’s been really, really good for us, and hopefully we can keep that relationship going forward.
“New Zealand Cricket weren’t keen on him bowling loads and loads, particularly in the red-ball stuff. But I think he’s enjoyed it, and we’d love to get him back and see him play some more county cricket.”
While O’Rourke departs to link up with New Zealand, Yorkshire fans will get to see a bit more of Australian all-rounder Sutherland, who remains at Headingley for the entire Blast group stage and then plays the two Championship matches against Surrey and Sussex at Scarborough later this month.
The 25-year-old Victoria captain’s spell has been hampered by a broken toe.
In seven Blast games, he has posted one fifty and added four wickets with his seamers. He struck once with the ball in the first innings of this week’s Championship win over Essex and claimed the winning wicket against the Rapids last night.
“They’re both young cricketers,” said McGrath. “It’s their first experience of county cricket, but they’ve fitted really well into the group.
Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWPix.com Will Sutherland (r) celebrates a Blast wicket with Will O’Rourke.
“Will Sutherland, we’ve got him for the two games at Scarborough now. He’ll extend his stay a little bit. He’s fully fit now with his toe, although he was under a few restrictions in terms of how much he could bowl against Essex.
“To have him for an extra couple of weeks now is excellent for the squad and obviously gives us that quality going to Scarborough.
“I keep saying we need to improve character as well as skill.
“They’ve played international cricket and are leaders in their own right, in their own group. It has shown our young players how to carry yourself and how to go about things, which is always good.”
Whisper it quietly, but Yorkshire head to a Queen’s Park venue where they have lost their last seven T20 encounters. The White Rose last won at Chesterfield in this competition back in 2014.
Derbyshire have so far won two from eight games and sit bottom of the table. They play their ninth game away against Lancashire at Emirates Old Trafford this afternoon (3pm).
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Anthony McGrath wants to see Wills O’Rourke and Sutherland in a Yorkshire shirt beyond this summer.
Captained by former England all-rounder Samit Patel, the Falcons have Australian opening batter Caleb Jewell and Afghanistan off-spinner Allah Ghazanfar as their overseas duo for the Blast.
Left-handed Tasmanian Jewell is their leading run-scorer with 227 and former England seamer Pat Brown their leading wicket-taker with 10 so far.
