Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Anthony McGrath confirmed that Jhye Richardson will debut against Hampshire on Friday.
Head coach Anthony McGrath was satisfied with a 10-point haul from the opening week of the summer as Yorkshire drew with Glamorgan in Cardiff, but the county’s coach insists improvement is needed in the coming weeks.
Yorkshire, set 295 to win after lunch on day four, closed on 239-7 after brief hope that they could chase the target, reaching tea at 125-1, needing 170 more.
During the first half of the evening, they slipped to 174-5 but held on against an invigorated, newly-promoted Glamorgan side who took 12 points.
“Obviously, we wanted to win the game and get off to a good start to the season,” said McGrath, who went on to confirm that Australian quick Jhye Richardson will debut against Hampshire at Headingley on Friday.
“We’ve not been at our best this game, particularly with the bat.
“At tea, we still very much fancied our chances. I thought it was probably our best period of the game, that partnership between Fin and Adam and then Sam Whiteman.
“Needing 170 with 34 overs left – with nine wickets – we felt if we could bat well for that first 10 overs after tea, we could have really put our foot down.
“As we did in the first innings, we lost key wickets and soft wickets, and that ultimately just didn’t allow us to push on.
“But, look, 10 points first game, we’ll take that. We probably blew a few cobwebs off even though we clearly weren’t at our best.”
Richardson only arrived in England midway through last week having had his travel plans disrupted by the ongoing conflict in and around the Middle East.
He has bowled at Headingley today with the second team, who start their season tomorrow.
McGrath said: “Yeah, he’ll come in. It’ll be great to see Jhye. We’ve seen him bowl today at Headingley on the vision. So, hopefully, he can continue that form we’ve seen in practice today. He looks pretty exciting.”
Captain Jonny Bairstow had to be subbed out of this game ahead of day three due to the thumb injury he suffered late on day one. Bairstow has remained with the team through until this evening and has to miss the Hampshire game due to the rules involved with the ECB’s new injury substitution introduction.
But Yorkshire are confident he will be fit to face Sussex at Headingley, starting on April 24.
“There’s a little crack in the thumb,” said McGrath. “Given that we have a bye the week after Hampshire, I think, fingers crossed, Jonny should be OK for that Sussex game.”
And on the performance here, the head coach added: “Every game in Division One is tough, and we knew Glamorgan’s first game (in Division One), they wanted to make an impact.
“But I think it was more about us rather than the opposition.
“We all know that we’ve not been at our best, but that’s a good thing as well because I think we know what our levels are. It’s just about getting to them, really.
“I probably sound more disappointed, but we’ve come away with 10 points not playing well. It’s not bad by any means.”
