Dan Moriarty is loving life at Yorkshire, and the left-arm spinner is determined to repay the faith shown in him.
Moriarty, 25, signed on at Headingley on a three-year contract ahead of 2024 after a brief mid-season loan spell last year.
The ex-Surrey man has played in four of the five Vitality County Championship matches so far this term and will hope to continue that run when Yorkshire travel to Hove this weekend to take on Division Two leaders Sussex, starting on Friday.
Moriarty has taken 10 wickets in his five matches so far, including a best of 4-74 in the first innings of the draw against Glamorgan at Headingley last time out – the weekend before last.
In that game, he played as one of two spinners alongside Dom Bess. Both men took five wickets in the fixture.
“One of the big reasons that I moved here was because I felt like I was going to be backed,” he said. “And the decision-making has kind of proved that.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com. Dan Moriarty celebrates dismissing Glamorgan’s Billy Root in Yorkshire’s last match.
“I can take a lot from the fact they gave me the responsibility to try and bowl out a team twice and win a game for this club. That’s a massive honour in itself. It’s a great feeling.
“I came here to play cricket, and they’ve seen that and have given me that opportunity. It’s been fantastic so far.
“Hopefully I can pay that back with results and wickets.”
Reflecting on his start to the season, Moriarty believes there is more to come.
“I haven’t necessarily got the outcomes I would have wanted, but it’s a process game for me,” he continued.
“I feel like I’ve had opportunities to take a few wickets. But the race has barely started, and there’s still a lot of cricket to be played.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com. Dan Moriarty and Dom Bess leave the field after taking four wickets apiece in the first innings of the Glamorgan draw.
“If I can continue doing good work, I’ll reap the rewards.”
In that aforementioned Glamorgan draw the weekend before last, Moriarty played alongside Bess. It was the first time Yorkshire had picked two spinners in the same team for a Championship match at Headingley since 2013.
Moriarty added: “Having two spinners in a side, two out and out spinners, it takes a lot of pressure off each other,” he added.
“Having the different dexterity really helps. We can bowl from different angles and different ends, and it’s sharing the workload.
“We bounce ideas off each other. If something’s working well for me, I can feed that back to him. It’s definitely nice to have.
“Even if it’s not spinning early season, I still think there’s a role for me where I can hold batters left and right-handed. Whereas Bessy is more of an all-rounder, and we attack both edges of the bat from our different angles.”
