Ottis Gibson said his Yorkshire side “fully deserved our win here” after triumphing inside three days against Leicestershire at the Uptonsteel County Ground, Grace Road.
Yorkshire moved second in the in-play Division Two table as they maintain their push for promotion in the Vitality County Championship.
This was their fourth win of the season, all of which have come amidst the last five games.
Middlesex would resume their position in second, by just a point with two rounds remaining, should they beat Gloucestershire at Lord’s at some point tomorrow.
If not, Yorkshire would either be seven points clear with a draw or, even better, 15 with a Gloucestershire win.
Coach Gibson praised a host of contributors in a match which saw Yorkshire win by an innings and 72 runs.
Jonny Tattersall starred with a first-innings 126 after winning a crucial toss. Matthew Fisher claimed three wickets in each innings added to a first-innings 88, Ben Coad’s first-innings 5-15 was outstanding, while George Hill returned a second-innings 6-59 to wrap up a 22-point haul this afternoon.
Moments after Hill had taken the winning wicket – he took each of the last six wickets in a spell which cost him only 30 runs – the heavy rain returned to Grace Road.
Gibson said: “First and foremost, I’m really proud of the lads.
“I’ve been singing their praises for a number of weeks now, and the way we played this week is indicative of the way we’ve been playing for a number of weeks.
“We’ve been playing some really good cricket and fully deserved our win here.”
Gibson had his say on the pitch, which saw Leicestershire slip to 15-7 on day one.
He said: “I’ve been saying about pitches for three years now. England are never going to play international cricket on a pitch with 16 millimetres of grass on it.
“Even though we won the game, I don’t think first-class cricket should be played on a pitch with 16 mm of grass on it. That’s something for the ECB to sort out.
“Other than that, we bowled really well.
“For Tatts to win the toss first of all and give us the opportunity to bowl. After that we, batted well on it and then got ourselves into a bit of a problem.
“But Jonny Tattersall has made three hundreds since I’ve been here.
“He made 180 against Surrey at Scarborough when we were in trouble and a hundred against Derbyshire at Chesterfield earlier this year when we were in trouble. Then he’s got another hundred this week when we were in trouble.
“He’s the man for a crisis, and he’s been captaining the team really well also.
“We’re very grateful to have him in our team, for sure. The lads absolutely love him.”
On the promotion picture, Gibson said: “We’re not going to focus too much on what’s going on in the other games. We just have to take care of our own business. That’s what we’ve done over the last three days.”
Continuing his praise of individual performers, he said: “Coady with the new ball in his hand is the best bowler in the country. I don’t think there’s a better new ball bowler in the country than Ben Coad.
“Not only on grassy pitches like this, but also flat pitches. He’s magic, you know.
“It’s good to have Fish back (from ankle injury).
“I know he’s made his decision to leave, but he’s not gone yet. He’s still a Yorkshire player, and we will play him because we want to win games of cricket. He was brilliant this week.
“Like myself, you want to sign off on a good note. And that was a good start for him being back in the team.
“I absolutely love George Hill. If he doesn’t do it with the ball, he will do it with the bat. He didn’t get any with the bat this week, but today when we needed him he was brilliant with the ball.”
On availability for Glamorgan next week, Gibson confirmed that he will have a chat with captain Shan Masood in the coming days to see where he stands.
He has been named in the Stallions squad for a recently-arranged Pakistan List A tournament running from tomorrow through to September 29.
On Jonny Bairstow, he said: “Jonny and I haven’t had the availability conversation yet. We’ll have that over a beer tonight.”
Gibson will also ask the question re Joe Root’s availability after he was rested from England’s ODI series against Australia ahead of next month’s Test tour to Pakistan.
Meanwhile, today’s bowling hero Hill added: “Very nice to get it done a day earlier.
“There’s been some key contributions, starting with Tatts in that first innings.
“When he has scored his hundreds, it has often come when we’re in a bit of trouble, like the one against Surrey at Scarborough two years ago, and against Derbyshire at Chesterfield this season.
“And here, when we needed him the most, he’s delivered again.
“Coady bowled unbelievably well in the first innings here and really well in the second without much luck, and Fish has bowled beautifully in his first game back from injury.
“I know he’s leaving, but he’s still a big part of the squad as we try to get promotion.
“It was my day, today. I thought it might not be when I was seven overs, none for 30 or something, but things can happen quickly on that sort of wicket.
“Rehan (Ahmed) played really well, but once we’d got him out things happened pretty quickly. The odd one was nipping for me and starting to keep low, and I just tried to be consistent.
“We’ve matured as a group since last year.
“Then, if someone like Rehan had come out and started playing shots, there might have been a bit of panic, potentially, that could have seen us start to go away from our plans.
“But we were patient today, we were clever with our fields and kept the slips in play.
“We’re definitely maturing as a group and learning how to win.
“We’re confident going into the last two games. Having some momentum at this stage of the season is massive, with different people contributing in different aspects of the game, not just one or two.”
