Over the coming weeks, we are running a series of articles on yorkshireccc.com with Jonny Tattersall, who has been reflecting on the key moments in Yorkshire’s promotion-winning campaign in the Vitality County Championship.
Entitled Tatts’ Magic moments, he continues by reflecting on a couple of challenging fixtures and how Yorkshire plotted their path to promotion.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com. Jonny Tattersall has revealed Yorkshire’s mindset at the midway point in their promotion campaign.
Jonny Tattersall says a realisation at the halfway point in the season that Yorkshire needed to sharpen up was an important moment in their promotion-winning campaign.
Yorkshire went through the first seven games of this summer’s Vitality County Championship with five draws and two losses. They were behind the curve in the race for a top-two finish having been beaten at both Middlesex and Sussex, the top two teams in the second division at that point.
A frustrating draw came at Northamptonshire in late May, after the Sussex defeat, with both sides having victory chances on the final day at Wantage Road when the hosts were chasing 326 in a little over two sessions.
They finished on 250-8, slipping from 165-2 thanks to four wickets for Adam Lyth, who had been brought on to improve a slow over-rate.
Northamptonshire opener Ricardo Vasconcelos ultimately thwarted Yorkshire with an unbeaten 129.
Lyth had a good game with 109, as did captain Shan Masood with 60 and 161. Overseas debutant Vishwa Fernando also claimed five wickets in the match on debut and Matthew Revis four following a tricky start to the campaign.
Picture by John Heald. Adam Lyth bowls on the final day against Northamptonshire at Wantage Road.
Prior to Northamptonshire, Yorkshire had slipped from 158-6 on day three against Sussex at Hove to 161 all out as they chased a 183-target.
“When you look back, Sussex and the game at Northants just highlighted where we were at as a team at that point,” said wicketkeeper-batter Tattersall. “We were doing some decent things in patches and some not so good things, and we just couldn’t get over the line.
“Sussex, we got into a winning position. It was the same again at Northampton.
“They got off to a flyer in that run chase, and it looked like we could be staring down the barrel when actually we’d played most of the cricket in that game.
“We’d shoot ourselves in the foot by letting teams back in.
“They looked like they could win it before Lythy took a few wickets and then we were the ones who just fell short.
Picture by John Heald. Vishwa Fernando dismisses Ricardo Vasconcelos for his debut wicket in Yorkshire colours and his 300th in first-class cricket.
“The thing we lent on in the last seven games where we started winning was that ruthlessness which had been lacking.”
Tattersall continued: “We actually had a very long debrief in the dressing room after that Northants game, to be fair. Everybody had a say on what they thought had been going on for the first seven games and what we needed to do better.
“There was, at times, maybe that feeling sorry for ourselves a bit because we weren’t finishing things off.
“Gibbo (Ottis Gibson) said, ‘We’re doing a lot of good things, but we’re not playing good cricket. Good cricket is performing for four days and making the most of that by going on and winning the game’.
“We’d kept saying to you guys that we were playing good cricket. But, actually, good cricket is as a whole, it’s not just playing for well in patches.
“There were definitely some honest words said.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com. Matthew Revis bowled nicely at Wantage Road.
“I remember Kabir Ali saying, ‘This is Yorkshire, and at times we’ve been a bit embarrassing in these first seven games. We need to better’.
“Kabir’s a quiet guy, but he was direct and to the point, and I think people realised that we had to make it turn rather than expecting it to happen. I think we did that from then on.
“When we turned up at Scarborough for the Gloucester game after the first half of the Blast, I said to the lads, ‘Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, let’s just try and win session by session’.
“If we strung four days together, we would come out on top and win matches. Thankfully, we did.”
Despite the frustrations at Hove and then Wantage Road, Tattersall was still able to point to positives.
“A magic moment for me was Leechy (Dom Leech) getting Pujara out twice in the game at Sussex,” he continued.
Picture by John Heald. Dom Leech bowls against Sussex at Hove.
“It was just a little snippet of the quality and depth we have in the squad. I know Leechy has left us now, but that somebody like that can come in and get big prized wickets like that indicates our strength as a county.
“I remember Rooty saying to Hilly as well after he’d bowled a spell, ‘That was Test Match standard bowling’. That’s what we have as a club. We have the ability all the way through the club. Whoever we put in, we can expect performances.
“Rev also came into his own with the ball after a tricky start.
“He might not have necessarily got the wickets, but I thought Northants was when his bowling looked like it was coming together, and it set him up for bowling well against Gloucestershire at Scarborough, the first game we won.”
Going back to Tattersall’s comments about Leech getting India great Cheteshwar Pujara out twice, it may not be that young bowler specifically who will shine in the coming years for Yorkshire given he has since signed for Northamptonshire.
But there are other young players on the fringes who can break through. Fast bowler Ben Cliff is one such example.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com. Ben Cliff is one of Yorkshire’s up and comers who Jonny Tattersall believes can shine for the club in the near future.
“One hundred percent,” added Tattersall.
“Cliffy got his chance to play in the Blast through an injury to Leechy, and he did really well. He took four wickets against Notts at Headingley.
“After that, he was unlucky not to break into the Championship team. It was just that we went on a good winning run and it was difficult to change the team.
“That’s the thing at Yorkshire. When you have a decent sized squad and a lot of quality young players, it’s difficult to get everybody into the team.
“But you have to be patient and wait for the opportunities.
“I’m sure when these lads like Cliffy do get a chance, they’ll put in performances.”
