Yorkshire in set-up talks (From Gazette & Herald)

Yorkshire in set-up talks

10:35am Friday 31st August 2012 in Sport By Graham Hardcastle

It was no surprise to hear Andrew Gale talking up the chances of a manufactured finish ahead of today’s final day of Yorkshire’s LV= County Championship match against Gloucestershire at Scarborough.

Yesterday’s washed out third day was the second of this match and the 13th full day lost in the county’s campaign.

The statistics make for grim reading seeing as Gale’s side have lost just short of 23 days of a possible 55 in the Championship, equating to 2,233 of a possible 5,376 overs.

Yorkshire’s hopes of promotion from division two have suffered as a result.

Ahead of this fixture, they were 13 points behind second-placed Hampshire with three matches left.

Should a draw be declared at some point today, they will be at least seven and at best two behind the South Coast outfit with both teams having two left to play.

But Gale is hopeful that, on the back of some constructive discussions with opposite number Hamish Marshall, a scenario can be fashioned to give his team the chance to move into second place with a third win of the season.

In reply to Gloucestershire’s 215 in their first innings, Yorkshire are 61-2 from 17 overs.

Setting up a finish would be the second time this season these two sides have done so, with Yorkshire chasing down 400 in the final 111 overs of the match at Bristol in May on the back of centuries from Phil Jaques and Gary Ballance.

“I’ll be having a word to see if we can manipulate something, but I’m not sure if they’ll be scarred with what happened down at Bristol. They might want to leave us 800,” admitted a frustrated Gale.

“But they’re in a position where they need to set games of cricket up.

“You just keep your fingers crossed that this weather isn’t going to cost us promotion.

“I guess you could say that we’re lucky to still be in a position where we can still get promoted going into the last few weeks of the season after all the rain we’ve had.”

Meanwhile, Yorkshire have to cut a provisional 20-man squad for the Champions League down to 15 on September 10.

There is a doubt over Rich Pyrah’s fitness following surgery on an injured earlier this week, while first-team coach Jason Gillespie added: “We’re hopeful that Jonny Bairstow may be available, but I don’t think Tim Bresnan will be if I’m perfectly honest.”