Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Rich Pyrah spoke at The Kia Oval this evening.
Rich Pyrah wants to see his Yorkshire side put two sides of their game together after narrowly falling short against Surrey at The Kia Oval today.
Yorkshire were bowled out for 185 before Surrey chased an adjusted 193 from 44 overs following a break midway through the visitors’ innings.
The White Rose were going nicely with the bat thanks in the main to captain Lauren Winfield-Hill’s fluent 60, though they slipped from 131-2 in the 27th over to 185 all out in the 41st.
They lost their last five wickets for nine runs and their last four for nought.
Unfortunately, there was some controversy in the game when Winfield-Hill was given out caught behind off Maitlin Brown, with replays showing the ball came off a combination of neck and helmet grill.
Yorkshire were docked five penalty runs as a result of her reaction to the decision.
In Saturday’s opening game against Somerset at Taunton, which they lost by one wicket, Yorkshire showed impressive resolve to almost defend a 179-target.
And they were at it again here. Opener Paige Scholfield raced out of the blocks with 89 off 42 balls, including 17 fours and two sixes.
Surrey reached 119-1 inside 12 overs, only to slip to 174-7 thanks to three wickets to Maddie Ward’s spin and two for the seam of Beth Langston.
Ultimately, an unbeaten 35 from Alice Davidson-Richards saw Surrey home with more than 20 overs remaining.
Head coach Pyrah said: “I just feel like we’re doing 50 percent of the job well, and then the last 50 percent we’re just letting ourselves down a little bit. That’s probably where we’re at as a team.
“The first half of the batting up to the rain break (115-2 after 23 overs), we were outstanding. We were building a partnership with Lauren and Sterre, and we were just getting going.
“The rain came at a bad time.
“Then, after a break, we restarted and lost a couple of wickets.
“Losing five wickets for nine runs and your last four for no runs, you’re going to struggle from there.”
Pyrah continued: “We just need to learn, we need to be a bit better on the game management and just absorb a bit of pressure when needed.
“But they got off to a good start – good players coming hard at your – and we’ve got great character within the team to get them seven down.
“If we’d have got another 50 runs, we’re well in the game.
“Look, we’re in Tier 1, it’s the second game, we’ve come to the Oval, and the majority of these girls have never played here before.
“We’re playing against Surrey, one of the strongest squads in the country, and we’re competing. So it’s all good.”
Touching on the Winfield-Hill dismissal, Pyrah said: “You get bad decisions in a game, it’s part of it. But it changed the game completely.
“It knocked us back, and that’s through a lack of game awareness, a lack of experience.
“Some of the youngsters were still talking about it an hour later. So, we’ve got to learn from it.”
And Pyrah added, returning to Yorkshire’s development more generally on the back of games like today and Saturday: “It’s game management and doing things better for longer periods of time.
“That’s what we’ve just been speaking about now.
“And just getting used to the pace of Tier 1 as well.
“We saw in the fielding that when Paige Scholfield was coming out hard, we didn’t field very well against it. That’s just not being used to that pace of this cricket.
“On these pitches, it comes quick, she hits it hard. So it’s a learning curve.
“We’re doing some good stuff, but we know the areas we need to improve.”
