Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Anthony McGrath spoke at Taunton this evening, after Yorkshire’s first win of the summer.
Anthony McGrath hailed Yorkshire’s belief after turning their clash with Somerset on its head and claiming a 75-run win at Taunton.
The White Rose triumphed shortly after tea on day four, bowling Somerset out for 184 as they pursued 260.
Off-spin duo Dom Bess and Joe Root claimed four wickets apiece, added to two wickets for the seam of George Hill, who also took three slip catches today.
This all came after Yorkshire had been bowled out for 162 on day one and later conceded a first-innings lead of 112.
There were other significant contributions too; James Wharton’s second-innings 92 for example’s, Root’s 64 and Jhye Richardson’s 50.
McGrath also revealed that part of Yorkshire’s motivation today was the interview Somerset all-rounder Craig Overton gave last night, in which he said: “We know the wicket is getting flatter with each day, so we are in a great position to win the game.
“We will employ the heavy roller in the morning to make it flatter still and the way their tail-enders played today, even against the new ball, is encouraging for us.”
Head coach McGrath said: “It was an incredible win.
“If I’m honest, I didn’t see it coming at the end of day one.
“When you have been going through a little patch like we have, you have to search inside. I have been mentioning the word belief and from the second morning we have shown it.
“We scrapped with the bat in the second innings and, although we still felt we left a few runs out there, the template of the innings was much better. We battled, rotated the strike and did not have one of the crazy hours, which we’ve had in five innings so far this season.
“In any standard of cricket, winning after conceding a lead of 112 does not happen often, so we are delighted.”
McGrath continued: “We saw the interview last night about how flat it was going to be and how easy the chase was going to be. So that was a motivation in our chat this morning.
“And we knew from the first innings, they’ve got a lot of shot players.
“We thought we could use the template of drying them up, and I thought our field-setting was smart.”
McGrath also praised Yorkshire for keeping things simple in their fightback with bat and ball.
“I keep telling everyone we are a very good team, but we’ve got to do the basics well,” he said.
“If someone like Joe Root, who has played more cricket than anyone going about, is telling people it’s about doing the basics well, it’s about doing the basics well.”
Yorkshire now head to Edgbaston to face Warwickshire on Friday, when Root will rest and will be replaced by Harry Brook in the team.
And it may be that Yorkshire have to do without Sam Whiteman once again due to a testicular injury which he suffered against Sussex and ruled him out of this game.
McGrath added: “Sam, we don’t know about yet. We’ll hopefully know more tomorrow, but it’s not looking great seeing him walk around.”
