LEEDS, England, CMC – Yorkshire’s disappointing defeat to Leicestershire last weekend has not dampened the spirits of head coach Ottis Gibson.
The former West Indies head coach watched as his side’s second innings declaration backfired. The visitors chased down 389 on the final day at Headingley to win by three wickets.
Yorkshire faces Gloucestershire at Bristol in their second match of the County Championship season but was frustrated as Thursday’s opening day was rained off.
“We did a lot of good things in the game,” said Barbadian Gibson, who featured in two Tests and 15 One-Day Internationals for West Indies.
“We got 500 in the first innings and declared with nearly 300 in the second. Then we also got 17 wickets.
“The bowlers did a lot on a very flat wicket. We’ll see how everybody shapes up.
“We’ll learn from that game, take what we need from it, go to Bristol, and try and get the season up and running.”
Yorkshire drafted in West Indies stroke maker Shai Hope for the first three games of the season, the right-hander’s 83 in the second innings at Headingley proving vital to the hosts’ push for victory.
The North England club, who play in Division Two, face a Gloucestershire side who battled hard to draw their season-opener at Glamorgan.
When the two teams met last season in the curtain-raiser, Yorkshire came away with a six-wicket win which Gibson still fondly remembers.
“That was a good game that went down to the last hour,” said Gibson, who presided over West Indies’ capture of the 2012 Twenty20 World Cup.
“Since I’ve been here, many games have done that. If you remember, almost all of the first six games last year went down to the last hour of the last day.”
Yorkshire and Gloucestershire were relegated from Division One at the end of last season.
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