Home is where the start is for ambitious Vikings
TIM BRESNAN has told his Yorkshire team-mates that results will come if they keep faith with their attacking principles as he looked ahead to a hat-trick of home games that he believes can kickstart the club’s T20 Blast campaign.
Yorkshire take on Birmingham Bears at Headingley tonight before hosting Worcestershire on Sunday and Durham on Wednesday.
It completes the first half of their 14-match group programme, which has so far brought one win, one defeat, one tie and one no-result.
Yorkshire showed enough in their win so far – a richly-impressive 48-run drubbing of Notts – to suggest that they can claim their first T20 trophy.
Although they lost their next match against Derbyshire, they by no means played poorly in that one before going on to suffer weather-ruined trips to Northants and Lancashire.
Primarily because of poor weather, Yorkshire’s campaign has yet to take off in the way that it threatened to after the Notts game.
However, Bresnan – who is captaining the side in the absence of England’s Gary Ballance – is confident that with better fortune with conditions and an ongoing commitment to playing positive cricket, Yorkshire can use the next three games as a springboard to rise up the North Group.
“It’s a chance for us to really build some momentum now in this competition,” he said.
“Results will start to fall our way if we keep playing the attacking brand of cricket we’ve been playing.
“That’s the message I’ve left with the boys, and hopefully we can come out on the right side of a few.
“It’s tough to get on a roll if you’re not playing games, and hopefully now with three home games on the bounce and some decent weather we will get on a bit of a roll.”
As usual, the table is very tight, with sides taking points off each other in the early stages.
Despite a stop-start competition so far, Yorkshire are already better placed than they were last year, when they reached Finals Day despite not winning any of their first five games, albeit with two of those matches being rained off.
“Everybody is beating everybody, so that’s the key – getting on a run and using that momentum,” added Bresnan.
“It’s about building into the quarter-finals, so hopefully now with these three home games we can come out on top.
“We’ll assess the squad in terms of selection, and we’re on the same wicket for all the games, so towards the end of the six days spin might play more of a factor. “The crowd makes a difference, and to get 10,000 for our first game (against Notts) was fantastic.”
Yorkshire responded to the support of the Headingley faithful by making 227-5 – their highest T20 score.
Bresnan has challenged the team to raise the bar even higher – up to the 240-mark – and is looking forward to tonight’s match and another tough challenge.
“They (Birmingham Bears) are always pretty competitive and they have some real power up the top,” he said. “They’ve signed quite well and have two Kiwi lads in the middle, so it will undoubtedly be a good test for us.
“We were a little bit disappointed in our last match against Lancashire because we felt as though we restricted them to a total we could easily get, so we were a little bit disappointed in the end.
“But that’s the weather, and we can’t control that.”
Also out of Yorkshire’s control is injuries, with Liam Plunkett still unavailable due to a grade one groin tear.
The England pace bowler is making good progress, though, and he hopes to be back in action for Wednesday’s visit of his former county Durham.
Yorkshire are also without allrounder Matthew Waite, who has an injured left ankle. He is expected to return within a fortnight.
Like Yorkshire, Birmingham are also seeking to get on a roll having also taken four points from their opening four matches.
The Bears opened their campaign with an eight-wicket victory against Worcestershire at New Road followed by a six-wicket win at home to Notts – the game in which Notts pace bowler Luke Fletcher suffered a sickening blow to the head when hit by a straight drive from Sam Hain.
But the Bears’ early momentum was doused by a five-wicket defeat at home to Northants and then a nine-run defeat at home to Leicestershire.