Yorkshire captain Andrew Gale has heaped praise on his bowlers despite the fact his side couldn’t grind out a win against Northamptonshire at Headingley in the LV=County Championship on Saturday.

When bad light forced the players off with 22 overs of the game remaining, the Tykes had reduced their opponents to 250-6 in their second innings.

It saw Northants close the game with a lead of only 87 runs.

A frustrated Gale said: “I couldn’t have asked any more of the lads.

“We didn’t bowl badly. Maybe on another day we would have found the edge a bit more but I’m proud of the effort they put in.”

He was irritated at the weather though.

The early end to proceedings on day four meant that an entire day was lost to the elements over the course of the match.

Gale continued: “It’s similar to what we’ve had all season really.

“It’s very hard to win games of cricket in three days.

“Had we had that fourth day and not lost 96 overs, then we would have been in a great position to win the game.”

Of that, there is no doubt.

Northants’ lead was a slender one by the time the game was halted, after Yorkshire had taken five wickets on the final day.

Mitchell Starc and Steve Patterson each got two of them, with Azeem Rafiq also impressing on his return to the Championship side with 1-66.

However, ultimately a 66 from Alex Wakely and then an unbroken seventh-wicket partnership of 52 from David Murphy (31) and Con de Lange (21) saved the game for the visitors.

Yorkshire were also left to rue the fact that de Lange was dropped in successive balls by Starc and Gary Ballance off the bowling of Rafiq when Northants had reached 208-6.

Gale concluded: “Fair play to Northants because they dug in well but we’re disappointed that we couldn’t get over the line.

“People are always going to come and try hard against us because we’re Yorkshire and we’re one of the biggest counties in cricket.

“That is something we’ve got to deal with.

“People in Division Two, coming to a Test ground like Headingley, are always going to up their game.”

The draw moves Yorkshire up to second in the table. However, the Tykes are now 28 points behind the leaders Derbyshire ahead of this week’s trip to face Glamorgan at Colwyn Bay.

There was more frustration for Yorkshire today as their Clydesdale Bank 40 match against Northants was abandoned without a ball bowled due to rain. Both sides picked up one point.