Yorkshire CCC looking at overseas options in effort to boost County Championship title hopes

YORKSHIRE are hoping to dip back into the overseas market in an effort to win the County Championship.
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The club would like to strengthen before the next four-day match against leaders Surrey at Scarborough on July 11.

Yorkshire have two crunch fixtures coming up at North Marine Road either side of a trip to Somerset on July 19, with second-placed Hampshire visiting Scarborough on July 25.

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Good results from those games would put Yorkshire – currently fourth in the table, 31 points behind Surrey – back in the mix for their first title since 2015, having won one, drawn five and lost one of their first seven games.

OVERSEAS OPTIONS: Yorkshire CCC head coach, Ottis Gibson Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.comOVERSEAS OPTIONS: Yorkshire CCC head coach, Ottis Gibson Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com
OVERSEAS OPTIONS: Yorkshire CCC head coach, Ottis Gibson Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com

“We are looking at our overseas options for the Championship,” said Ottis Gibson, the Yorkshire head coach, who has been able to call on the services of Haris Rauf, Dimuth Karunaratne and Dominic Drakes at various times in the tournament this season.

“There’s some important games coming up, and it’s certainly something that we’re having a look at.

“We’re playing some good cricket at the moment, but we’ve not had the number of wins that we would like, and we need to try and win some games going forward. It’s all well and good to draw games, but we need to try and win games as well, but we’re not far away in the Championship, certainly, and have been doing plenty of good stuff.”

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Gibson is also pleased overall with Yorkshire’s T20 form, despite the six-wicket defeat to Derbyshire in a rain-affected match at Chesterfield on Saturday.

Dimuth Karunaratne has been one overseas option for Yorkshire in the County Championship this season Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.comDimuth Karunaratne has been one overseas option for Yorkshire in the County Championship this season Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com
Dimuth Karunaratne has been one overseas option for Yorkshire in the County Championship this season Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com

Yorkshire undoubtedly had the worst of the conditions but remain well-placed to book a place in the quarter-finals.

“We’re not going to panic, and there’s no doom and gloom in the Yorkshire dressing room,” he said.

“The games come along thick and fast, so you certainly can’t afford to carry your disappointment with you.

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“We lost a rain-affected game that could have gone either way, one that went down to the very last over, but we’ve still got four games left and we’ve put ourselves in a pretty good position.

“We know what we’re trying to achieve – we’re trying to get into the quarter-finals – and the Derbyshire game was just one of those things; the weather is always against the team that’s fielding second in such circumstances, and unfortunately we just came out on the wrong side.”

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