Cricket: No panic yet for Yorkshire as Lyth hits double-hundred in Surrey draw cricket

Yorkshire, who yesterday drew a rain-affected game against Surrey at the Oval, saw Middlesex extend their lead at the top of Division One with a nervy victory over Somerset and Gillespie said: “It’s a fantastic league this year, there’s no doubt about that.

“But we’re not bothered just yet where we sit in the table. For me it’s more about how we’re going about our business.

“Middlesex have played well in this round, but we can’t control what they do and can’t concern ourselves with it.

“We knew we have seven games left with three of those are at home, including a game at Scarborough, and these are home venues where we know we can play very good cricket. That’s what we’ll focus on.”

Adam Lyth hit 202 before Yorkshire and Surrey shook hands on a draw, with a total of 142 overs lost to rain over the four days.

The relegation threatened hosts banked 10 points for their fourth draw of the campaign, while Yorkshire, who move up to fourth on the table, took home 13pts after dominating much of the play that was possible over four bleak days in SE11.

“We sat down after our recent game in Scarborough and identified a few areas we might improve upon,” added Gillespie, “and one of those was the conversion rate amongst our batsmen, so Adam Lyth answered that here in no uncertain terms.

“It was a chanceless ‘big daddy’ double hundred and that’s exceptional.”

Next up for Yorkshire is a T20 Blast fixture against Nottinghamshire tonight, at Trent Bridge.