Picture by John Mallett/Leicestershire CCC. Dan Moriarty bowls at Grace Road during Leicestershire’s first innings.
“As a team we fought hard, but we’ve got our work cut out.”
Four-wicket spinner Dan Moriarty spoke at the end of day two at Grace Road this evening, where Yorkshire are down but by no means yet out.
It has been a difficult two days for the White Rose, who are 32-2 in their second innings and still 236 in arrears after a strong Leicestershire performance.
Centuries for Rehan Ahmed and Nick Kelly have taken the headlines, and they will be confident of claiming a victory before Monday evening.
For Yorkshire, their task is simple. Bat, bat and bat and then see where it takes them.
“We were kind of fighting from the first day coming into today,” said Moriarty, whose 4-85 led the way in Leicestershire’s first-innings 453 all out as they replied to 185. “So, a little bit behind the eight-ball.
“I think we showed bits of good cricket and quite a lot of character out there.
“They definitely batted better than us. Obviously, the scores suggest that. Credit to them.
“We’ll start again in the morning, and the key is time. We saw when they batted for long periods of time, it made it look easier.
“Like any wicket, the longer you bat, the easier it becomes. It’s quite quick-scoring as well. But I think we’ve got our blueprint from how they batted.
“Maybe we could flip innings, so to speak. Maybe we can swap it around and get a big score.
“And then there could be day-four pressure.
“They’ll be excited to win, and maybe they haven’t had the opportunity to do so (this season). We could use that.
“But we’ve got to have a ‘one ball at a time’ kind of mentality and we need to scrap.”
This is Moriarty’s first game of the season in Yorkshire’s first team, so it was pleasing to see him contribute. A mixture of selection and a hand injury has contributed.
And he added: “It’s not been an easy period for me. I’ve been trying to find ways to contribute to the team when I’m not playing.
“A lot of work went in before this performance. I love playing for this club, and I love contributing in all sorts of ways, whether it’s on or off the field. So it was nice.
“It’s definitely not a match-winning spell. But, if we play good cricket from here, it could present an opportunity for us.”