Ottis Gibson believes Yorkshire need to be better in key moments in order to taste victory in the LV= Insurance County Championship after a narrow defeat to leaders Durham at the Seat Unique Riverside.
Gibson was clearly frustrated after his side came out on the wrong end of a thrilling Division Two affair in the North East.
Durham, chasing 246, started day four on 213-8 and gained the 33 runs they needed in 50 minutes of playing with Ben Raine finishing 50 not out and Brydon Carse hitting the winning runs.
George Hill struck with two runs required to raise tensions to fever-pitch before injured last man Brydon Carse edged the winning runs.
It is now five games without a Championship win for Yorkshire this season, though they are 17 without victory in all dating back to the opening week of 2022.
The coach said: “When you look back at the 17 games, and I’ve said this to the lads in the dressing room. In order to win, you have to create the opportunities first. At some time in the game, you have to put yourself in with a chance to win.
“If you look at last week, for instance, against Glamorgan. After the second day when we batted poorly, we had no chance of winning that game.
“But the Leicester game, we had an opportunity to win. The game at Sussex, we had an opportunity to win. Again, here this week, we had an opportunity to win.
“We’re putting ourselves in with a chance. Perhaps we’re lacking a bit of toughness in those key moments that can get us over the line.
“If we weren’t putting ourselves in positions, it would be a far more difficult place to be.
“The effort is there, and you can’t fault the effort. But it’s just the key moments when you need someone to step up.”
He went on: “There are a whole lot of different emotions. It’s a hard one to take, but I think we did a lot of good things in the game.
“It was a low-scoring affair, and you could argue the way we bowled yesterday afternoon in the first hour with the new ball allowed them to score far too many runs too easy.
“But I look probably a bit before that, with our batting in the second innings.
“We scored 254 and got a batting point and bowled them out for under our score. All it required was a good batting effort. Three hundred was going be a difficult chase, and I felt we should have batted better in the second innings.
“When you look at the batters we’re sending out, they’re world-class players. George Hill was the example to everybody else.
“But, to be fair, you have to give credit to Durham. They played well and are top of the log for a reason. They’ve won already this season, and we’re still trying to win. We know that winning is not easy. They showed a lot of good character yesterday afternoon when we got stuck in and got a lot of wickets.
“Raine and Potts pretty much won them the game, and that is an example for our all-rounders, who haven’t fired properly yet.”
Meanwhile, Gibson fully expects Jordan Thompson to be fit for the start of the Vitality Blast against Birmingham Bears at Edgbaston on Saturday.
Thompson went down as he tried to stop a Raine boundary in his follow through this morning, with initial thoughts being that he had dislocated his shoulder.
Gibson said: “I think he just dislocated his finger. When I saw it, I thought he’d dislocated his shoulder as well. But he’s a tough guy, and I’m sure he will be ready for the Blast.”
Yorkshire face the Bears in front of the Sky cameras on Saturday evening, with Gibson also revealing that conversations are ongoing with regards to the availability of two key men, overseas all-rounder David Wiese and England batter Harry Brook, who are on IPL duty with Kolkata and Hyderabad respectively but not in the sides at present.
“Because David’s not been playing, he’d been speaking to his owners about being released early so that he’s available for the weekend. But Goughie is having those conversations,” said the coach.
“I’m sure Brooky would love to be here for the start of the Blast, but he’s got an obligation over there whether he’s playing or not. But he wants to be playing. Again, that’s a conversation which has been going on.”
Yorkshire head into that competition on the back of last year’s run to Finals Day. Gibson added: “This year the intention is to go one better than last year, so hopefully we can get off to a good start.”
