Rhodes: Pressure on White Rose outfit (From Worcester News)

Rhodes: Pressure on White Rose outfit

10:00am Wednesday 25th July 2012 in Sport By Tom Guest, @tomguestWN #WENsport

THE pressure of expectation from their fervent fans could weigh heavy on the Yorkshire team in this afternoon’s Friends Life t20 quarter-final, according to Royals director of cricket Steve Rhodes .

The Headingley faithful are passionate about their cricket, but are also notoriously quick to let their team know if they don’t think they are going about things the right way.

Rhodes, a Yorkshireman himself, explained: “For all of the sides at home in the quarter-finals, expectation is big, but none more so than for Yorkshire.

“They are fanatical with their cricket and they don’t mind telling people if they don’t agree with them — that’s often the case with their own team if things aren’t going so well on the field.”

Asked about the dangermen in the White Rose squad, Rhodes added: “I think their best bowler has been Moin Ashraf, who has tended to bowl four overs at the death. It’s important that we deal with him.

“I think they may also bowl Joe Root at the start and that’s also an area we need to address.

“The rest of it falls into place — their batters are quite strong, but with a lot of leg-side players. “We will tinker with our plan a little bit and reinforce how we want to pull it off.

“Phil Jaques is a good player and all good players are difficult to stop. “If it’s his day, then it’ll come off for him, but we know where he plays.

“He’s quite bottom-handed and favours the leg-side, so we have to make sure mid-wicket and deep square is pretty much covered and try and get him to hit in other areas.

“Jaquesy is a good player and I really loved having him here, because he was a great role model for a lot of the guys. I think he is a real bonus for Yorkshire.”