If any of George Hill, Ben Mike, Dom Bess or Matthew Revis can replicate the performance Tom Smith put in the last time he played a List A fixture at Trent Bridge, it’s likely that Yorkshire will get their first win Metro Bank One-Day Cup victory against Nottinghamshire tomorrow (11am).
The Vikings travel to the East Midlands for group fixture number three of eight. So far, they have lost one narrowly against Kent and had the other against Smith’s former county Lancashire abandoned due to a wet outfield.
Smith, Yorkshire’s current second-team coach, is part of Ottis Gibson’s coaching staff for the ongoing 50-over competition.
In 2011, whilst playing for Lancashire in a 40-over match, Smith opened the batting with 117 and then claimed 4-48 from eight overs in a two-run win over the Outlaws at Trent Bridge.
He is the only player to have ever achieved that feat in Red Rose history. Incidentally, Craig White and David Willey have both done that for Yorkshire.
“That was a long time ago, and it was one of my better one-day performances!” smiled Smith, as he looked ahead to tomorrow’s fixture.
“Trent Bridge is a great place to play cricket. I’ve played there quite a bit and coached there quite a bit as well. We’re really looking forward to it.
“In white ball cricket, Notts have always got a good strong team even though they’ve lost players to the Hundred. It will be a tough game down there, but we’re confident.”
Notts, captained by Haseeb Hameed, are set to include former Yorkshire all-rounder Tom Loten, who was released last winter. South African seamer Dan Paterson is their overseas player.
They beat Essex at Chelmsford by 168 runs yesterday, bowling the hosts out for 69 in defence of 238. Paterson claimed 4-30. Loten made his Notts debut in that match (5 and 1-19).
Smith has worked with a number of the Yorkshire players playing in this competition in the second team over the last two summers and is backing them to shine and get on a winning run.
“The stuff they’ve been doing in the second team has been really impressive, and hopefully they can carry that on here. It’s great to see them go out there and play some competitive first-team cricket,” continued Smith.
“We’re playing for a trophy, and it’s an opportunity for the lads to go out there, have fun and express themselves.”
This competition has been described as a developmental opportunity by Yorkshire’s coaching staff and by plenty of other counties as well. But Smith said of the Vikings: “They’re competitive lads, and they’re going to want to win regardless.
“Yes the competition is there to give lads a chance. But you can’t get away from wanting to win. They want to win the football in the morning warm-ups or at cards upstairs when it’s raining.
“Whenever they cross the line, they want to win a game of cricket and ultimately a trophy.”
Given there is nothing going on second-team wise for this month, not only is it a chance for the players to progress it is for highly-regarded Smith as well.
“It’s nice to be around Gibbo, Ali and Kabs, to learn from them,” he added.
“These kind of games – be it a Roses game at Scarborough had we played, Notts at Trent Bridge – if you’re not playing in them, the next best thing is to be coaching in them.
“Hopefully we get some cricket in and the weather stays away!
“We were on the rough end of one on Tuesday with the Duckworth Lewis Stern. I think we’d have won that game without any rain. Then, Lancs was disappointing.”
