Yorkshire’s new signing Josh Poysden has spoken of a tough home debut as the county head towards a Championship defeat against Worcestershire at Scarborough.
The on-loan Warwickshire leg-spinner, who will join permanently on a three-year contract in the winter, claimed three wickets towards the end of the Worcestershire’s first-innings 572-7 declared during day three.
Poysden saw the Pears claim a first-innings lead of 356 courtesy of 178 from Daryl Mitchell and Moeen Ali’s 219.
Moeen then struck four times with the ball as Yorkshire reached close at 140-6 in their second innings.
“It’s been a pretty tough game for us so far,” said Poysden.
“Playing a team down at the bottom, it’s been disappointing to find ourselves in this position.
“At the same time, we’ve got to scrap for everything we can. We’ve spoken about showing a bit of pride in playing for Yorkshire and making it as hard as possible for them tomorrow.
“These things happen in cricket. We’ve obviously found ourselves a long way behind the eight ball in this game. But it’s a chance to show some character.
“It was only the last game at Old Trafford that we got a win in a Roses game. But these things happen. In first-class cricket cricket when you get behind the eight ball, you can really come out on the wrong side of a game. It’s not easy.
“You never say never, but it’s a massive uphill struggle tomorrow. We still have Jonny Tattersall playing well and Dave Willey’s a class player.
“Even watching Matt Fisher and Jack Brooks in the first innings, they can both bat. But it’s going to be a real struggle for us.”
Poysden has played very little Championship cricket at Warwickshire this season, owing much to Jeetan Patel’s stranglehold on the spinner’s berth in their side.
So he was happy to get through a decent amount of overs in Worcestershire’s first innings.
“The ball’s coming out ok for me,” he said. “It was nice to pick up some wickets – to burgle three-for at the end – and get 25 overs under my belt.
“But there’s a bit of a way to go.
“I’ve played a bit more white ball cricket so far, and I’m trying to learn as quick as I can with my red ball stuff and get up to speed so I can put in some good performances for the club.”
On Moeen’s standout performance, he added: “In my last game for Warwickshire on Friday night, we played against Worcestershire in the Blast and he got a hundred there as well.
“I had a little joke with him saying ‘I’m a bit sick of seeing you’.
“He’s a serious cricketer with a point to prove trying to get back into the Test side. It was a really good innings from him.”
