We are not the finished article yet, says Yorkshire coach Andrew Gale

Duanne Olivier (2nd R) of Yorkshire is congratulated by team mates after he took the wicket of Fred Klaassen.

Gale’s men are second in Division One – two points behind Somerset after three games played.

“We’re not getting too far ahead of ourselves,” said the first team coach.

“We know there’s tougher tests around the corner.

Yorkshire first-team coach, Andrew Gale.
Picture : Jonathan Gawthorpe — Yorkshire first-team coach, Andrew Gale. Picture : Jonathan Gawthorpe

“We’re playing some good cricket, but, as I’ve said before, the Championship and winning trophies is a long way off.

“It’s that old adage of taking each game as it comes and we’re just trying to stick to our processes.

“We’re playing some nice cricket at times, but there’s still a lot of room for improvement and we’re nowhere near the finished article.”

Yorkshire’s victory at Kent came after they had been 96-6 on the first day and conceded a first innings lead of 86.

But a brilliant 159 from Gary Ballance, who shared in a stand of 188 with Jack Leaning, turned the match on its head before pace bowler Ben Coad took six wickets in Kent’s second innings on Friday.

Although delighted with the character shown by his players, Gale does not want them to  be known as comeback specialists.

“I’ve said to the lads, ‘We’re a good team, but it feels like we’re always 1-0 down. Can we go 1-0 up for once?’” he said.

“We seem to be fighting our way back into games a lot and we’re very, very good at doing that, but can we land the first blow from ball one, so to speak? Can we win the first few sessions of the game?

“Once again, we showed a lot of character from 90-odd for six at lunch on day one.

“We were pretty poor in the first innings with the bat, but we fought our way back and bowled exceptionally well, and the key partnership really was the one between Gary and Jack on that third morning which just gave us the confidence that we could take the game away from Kent.”

Gale went on: “We had a good start last year and ended up fighting relegation, so we know that things can change very quickly. But I guess what’s in our favour is that there’s a good block of Championship cricket at the moment and we’ve gone into it with a win which will only give us confidence.”