Gough sets sights on final fling

Darren Gough has Sajid Mahmood lbw for nought at Headingley on Wednesday

Darren Gough has the chance of leading his native Yorkshire in a Lord’s final in the last summer of his career.

The Yorkshire captain believes his team have as good a chance as any of the last eight of reaching the Friends Provident Trophy showpiece following yesterday’s last round of group matches.

Yorkshire were set for a landslide victory over Lancashire at Headingley Carnegie – only for rain to wipe out the remainder of the match with the hosts 34 without loss in reply to the Red Rose’s 89 all out.

Gough’s men therefore had to settle for an away tie at Gloucestershire next week, by virtue of finishing only runners-up to Durham in the north division.

After taking 3-17 to help bowl Lancashire out, however, Gough was in optimistic mood.

“Everybody’s got a chance now,” he said. “Whenever you get to the quarter-finals you’re only two games away. I’m quite confident – we’ve got a good side.”

Yorkshire were without four injured seam bowlers but still made short work of Lancashire in highly favourable conditions after the visitors’ stand-in captain Luke Sutton surprisingly chose to bat first.

Gough believes Yorkshire have the resources to sustain a challenge for silverware.

“We’ve shown signs of improving throughout this tournament,” he added.

“We’ve been awesome with the bowling every game. The bat has been a little bit hit and miss.

Gough (right) won the NatWest Pro40 with Essex in 2006 and the totesport League the previous year

“If I could have asked, it would be nice to have had a home tie against one of the southern counties – that would have been ideal.

“But we just wanted to qualify – which we’ve done.

“A lot of people would have said we didn’t have a chance of getting into the quarters, with Durham and Lancashire in our group as favourites to go through.”

For the former England fast bowler Gough, there remains the lure of signing off a famous career on a high.

“I’ve won plenty of trophies with Essex and the championship with Yorkshire,” he recalled.

“We’ve got a long way to go – because there are some very good sides left in the tournament.

“It doesn’t matter where you go now – it’s who plays best on the day.

“We’ll still be short on personnel, with injuries. We just hope we don’t get any more this week, before the quarter-finals.”

In the other last-eight ties, to be played on June 4, Durham will host Nottinghamshire, Kent will take on Somerset and Essex will travel to Leicestershire.