Ali Maiden is expecting Yorkshire to take the positive approach to their final day victory bid against Derbyshire at Chesterfield tomorrow.
Assistant coach Maiden will return to the Queen’s Park ground to see his side, chasing 212 to win, pursue another 65 runs with four wickets in hand at 147-6.
Captain Shan Masood will resume on 68, while Dawid Malan will come to the crease at the start of play, batting at eight having been off the field injured with a groin issue during Derbyshire’s second innings.
“You’ve seen the way Shan’s gone about it,” said assistant coach Maiden said. “He wants to score and put people under pressure.
“With Mala going in, I don’t think he’s going to block it.
“It will be about making sure it doesn’t become just us under pressure.
“We’ll be trying to put some pressure back on the bowlers to impose ourselves and get these runs in as confident and positive way as we can.”
Reflecting on the position of the game, Maiden continued: “All Championship cricket is tough, it’s always hard work wherever you play.
“What we didn’t expect in this game was for the pitch to play as well as it did in the end.
“It started a bit interesting, and we thought the game would move quicker. But it flattened out and played really well for the last day and a half.
“It’s made for a good end to the game tomorrow.
“We knew it would be easier to play seam (in the chase). Everybody knew the biggest test would be spin. We got a good start, and Shan’s a fine player of spin. With him there, you’re always in the game.
“We still have Mala and some good batters to come. We are confident.”
Yorkshire employed Matthew Fisher and Matthew Revis as two nightwatchmen before close.
“We sent Fish in to get through the last couple of overs,” said Maiden. “It’s a difficult one, and it hasn’t worked for us the last couple of times we’ve used it.”
Yorkshire endured a chastening second innings as Derbyshire recovered from 17-4 to 453-9, though they did improve significantly with the ball today.
Dom Bess claimed three afternoon wickets, and Maiden added:
“Dom bowled well today, and we bowled much better in general than we did yesterday.
“We created a lot more chances and were arguably a bit unlucky. We beat the bat a lot.”
