Anthony McGrath column

I can’t remember being involved in a game quite like the one in the Championship against Nottinghamshire last week.

I don’t think we’ve been on top so much, or another team has been, and the result has changed around like that. We completely outplayed the champions for two days but our batting show on that third day was feeble.

The pitch got slightly better from the first two days but we slipped up with our first-innings batting. We should have got more of a lead to rule Notts out of the game. We should have got a lead of 250-300 in the position we were in at 110-1.

When we batted second time around, trying to knock off that 145, it didn’t look like we had that intent. When you don’t have that, you can get a couple of rough decisions.

I’ve heard people say ‘that’s why Notts are champions’, and you do have to give them credit for how they bowled, but it was our mistakes that let them back into it.

The feeling afterwards was a similar one to that Kent game which we lost when we had a chance to win the Championship last September. It really was that deflating.

The most important thing now, especially after Sunday’s defeat against Holland in the CB40 too, is that we gather ourselves and try to make a really big push in both competitions when we return from this little break.

I got a little bit of a rough decision in the second innings but I felt pretty good during the first innings when I got 49.

I’m still struggling with this sciatica in my back, something which has dated back to the surgery I had on my knee before the start of the season.

I had another injection after the Holland game and it’s not settling down as much as we thought it would. It’s a bit of a concern.

It’s one of those things that comes and goes sporadically. I’ve been told that it will settle – but when, I’m not quite sure at the moment. You can be resting and have it and be playing and not.

Azeem Rafiq’s loan move to Derbyshire for a month bodes well for both him and Yorkshire that he can go away and get some first-team experience.

It’s unfortunate for Azeem at the moment that we’ve got Wainers and Adil in front of him, but he’s shown that he has immense talent. He needs to be challenged now. Let’s hope he does well.