Andrew Gale has revealed that Yorkshire have sounded out in-form South Africa spinner Keshav Maharaj about a return to the club next season.
Maharaj, 29, has taken a fabulous 28 wickets with his left-arm spin and hit two fifties in four Specsavers County Championship appearances.
The county’s short-term overseas signing claimed eight wickets in the match as Nottinghamshire were beaten by 143 runs at Scarborough, including 6-95 in the second innings defending a target of 387.
“We’ve already chatted about it,” said coach Gale, delighted with his side’s fifth Division One victory in 11 games – their second at North Marine Road.
“The problem is he’s getting married in May, so he won’t be available then. I also think they’ve got a Test series in June they are looking at against the West Indies.
“We’ll have to sit down and see how the dates fit with our fixtures.
“He’s a match winner – six-for there. Since Adil Rashid has left this format, that’s been the missing cog – a frontline spinner.
“When you get a total like that on the board second innings and there’s a bit in the pitch, having a world-class spinner is massive.”
Yorkshire won this game from 13-4 and 38-5 in the first innings: “We drove the game from there,” continued Gale.
“I had no problem with the way we went about our batting in the first innings.
“I said to the lads, ‘Sometimes you have to just give the opposition credit’. I thought Luke Wood probably bowled one of the best spells he has done in his career.
“Yes, we gave them a couple of wickets out of the 10 that we lost, but the attitude and approach to it was good. It just happened that we were 13-4.
“I thought the partnership between Tim Bresnan and Jonny Tattersall (121 for the sixth wicket) was the biggest difference in the game. They showed a lot of character and skill.”
