Ottis Gibson still believes one more win may be enough to ensure Yorkshire are promoted from Division Two of the Vitality County Championship.
Midway through the season, when Yorkshire had drawn five and lost two, the county’s coach said that four wins added to a number of solid draws from the remaining seven games would be enough to hoist them up the table into second place.
Since then, they have won three and drawn one.
They beat Gloucestershire and Sussex at Scarborough, with a win over Derbyshire at Chesterfield sandwiched in between. Last weekend, they had the better of a high-scoring draw with fellow challengers Middlesex at Headingley.
The gap between Yorkshire in third and Middlesex in second is just one point with three games remaining. Leaders Sussex are also 20 points clear of Yorkshire.
Yorkshire travel to face Leicestershire at the Uptonsteel County Ground, Grace Road, tomorrow, starting at 10.30am now that we’re into September.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.co. George Hill heads to Leicestershire on the back of a first-innings 169 not out in the most recent draw against Middlesex.
“I stand by what I said many weeks ago,” said Gibson.
“The road map of how we’re going to get there (promotion) is still the same.”
Clearly, if Yorkshire win one and lose two, for example, that might not be enough. But a couple of draws and a win against either Leicestershire, Glamorgan away or Northamptonshire at home would likely do the trick.
An interesting dynamic is that Middlesex visit Sussex at Hove in the final game of the season.
They host Gloucestershire at Lord’s tomorrow.
Gibson continued: “We drew against Middlesex, and over the course of the game we got 600 and scored at nearly 4.5 runs per over for the whole innings. But they scored at under threes.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com. Like George Hill, Jonny Bairstow also hit a superb century against Middlesex at Headingley, a first-innings 160. He faces the Foxes this week.
“That says that our attack is operating at a high level.
“Our seamers didn’t have a high workload because the wicket wasn’t really conducive.
“Everybody will have had a nice week off and be well rested.
“The best thing I can tell you is that every single person in the dressing room believes that we have the capability to get promoted this year. Everybody is completely invested in that.
“It’s exciting.
“You look at last year, by the time we got to this point we had no chance of trying to get promoted. The last three games can become a drag.
Picture by John Heald. Coach Ottis Gibson is looking forward to a return to Grace Road. He played for Leicestershire as an overseas player in 2004 and 2005.
“This time, we are in a great position to get that promotion and get over the line. We’ve just got to go out and keep playing the way we’ve been playing – positive cricket.”
Jonny Bairstow continues to be available for Yorkshire, while Matthew Fisher is back in contention following an ankle injury which has ruled him out since May.
Jonny Tattersall will captain Yorkshire with Shan Masood unavailable following Pakistan’s Test series against Bangladesh. As things stand, Masood has only been ruled out of this game.
While Yorkshire are very much looking up in Division Two, and the popular opinion is that the race for two promotion places is between three teams, Leicestershire can’t be discounted from the race just yet.
The Foxes sit fourth in the table and are 18 points behind Yorkshire and 19 adrift of Middlesex. Their perfect scenario for this round would be to beat Yorkshire and hope Gloucestershire beat Middlesex at Lord’s.
But you feel like they are in must win territory.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com. Yorkshire will face Peter Handscomb (l) – one of their former overseas players.
And that leads you to believe there will be something in the Grace Road surface for this fixture, the last of four Kookaburra ball rounds to be played this season.
It was similar last year, although the late September fixture at Grace Road was ruined by the weather.
Yorkshire were bowled out for 155 in the first innings before the Foxes replied with 233. Yorkshire then responded well with a second-innings 225-4, but rain curtailed things from there.
“Everybody in the second division talks about result pitches – everybody needs results, and I’m sure they’ll do that again this year,” added Gibson. “But we’re ready for that.
“We have all bases covered with our attack – if Fish comes back into the attack, Cliffy’s been bowling very well. We have the three seamers who played against Middlesex, and we have the spin option.
“We have a strong batting line-up, we have Jonny Bairstow, and we have a lot of confidence going into the last game of the season.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com. Matthew Fisher is in contention for a return to first-team action having not played since May because of an ankle issue.
“That’s the main thing. We’re really looking forward to it.”
Leicestershire drew with Glamorgan at Sophia Gardens last week when they were made to follow-on in reply to the home side’s 550-9 declared. They were saved by second-innings centuries from overseas duo Ajinkya Rahane and Peter Handscomb.
Australian Handscomb, a former Yorkshire overseas player, is their leading run-scorer with 894 this season, while on-loan Hampshire seamer Scott Currie is their leading wicket-taker with 27. Ben Mike is close behind him with 25.
Leicestershire will be without towering left-arm quick Josh Hull, who is currently making his Test Match debut for England against Sri Lanka at the Kia Oval.
