Tykes aim to respond

8:34am Tuesday 13th May 2008

Yorkshire coach Martyn Moxon says the hectic nature of county cricket will be an advantage to his side as they look to bounce back from Sunday's shock one-day defeat to Lancashire.

The Tykes travel to Durham tomorrow for their third County Championship game of the season, having made a healthy start with a win and a draw.

But they were shattered by a fine comeback from their arch-rivals in the Friends Provident Trophy North Division game at Old Trafford.

Francois Du Plessis scored an unbeaten 77 to help the hosts recover from 76-5 to chase down 214.

However, Moxon said that an immediate chance to respond at the Riverside was just what the doctor ordered.

"You have to respond," said the former Durham coach. "And that is the upside of there being so much cricket in a season.

"Everyone is pretty disappointed about that performance. But we will go home, lick our wounds, have a good practice and make sure that we are ready for tomorrow.

"We've had a couple of days to recover and make sure that we are ready for it."

Moxon, who left the Riverside last winter to move back to his home county, refuses to accept that his side are favourites for tomorrow's clash, despite Durham's patchy start in both forms of cricket.

They were beaten by 232 runs in the LV division one fixture against Lancashire last week - and have only won two out of five Friends Provident games as they look to defend their title.

But Moxon, who was absolutely livid straight after Sunday's game at Old Trafford, said: "They haven't become a bad side overnight. We will have to be at our best to beat them.

"We are pretty pleased with the way that we have gone - a win and a draw. But I keep saying every week that it is a tough competition, the Championship.

"Durham at the Riverside are a tough nut to crack. We lost there last year, so we need to try to do better."

On the possibility of using some inside knowledge to help the Tykes following his time in the North East, Moxon added: "We play each other that many times that we know each other's game pretty well anyway."

Ajmal Shahzad, who will be out for up to six weeks because of a hamstring tear, has signed a one-year extension to his contract, and will be at Headingley until 2009.

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