ANDREW Gale has revealed that Yorkshire have sounded out in-form South Africa spinner Keshav Maharaj about a return to the club next season.

Maharaj, 29, has taken a fabulous 28 wickets with his left-arm spin and hit two fifties in four Specsavers County Championship appearances.

The county’s short-term overseas signing claimed eight wickets in the match as Nottinghamshire were beaten by 143 runs at Scarborough yesterday, including 6-95 in the second innings defending a target of 387.

“We’ve already chatted about it,” said coach Gale, delighted with his side’s fifth Division One victory in 11 games - their second at North Marine Road.

“The problem is he’s getting married in May, so he won’t be available then. I also think they’ve got a Test series in June they are looking at against the West Indies.

“We’ll have to sit down and see how the dates fit with our fixtures.

“He’s a match winner - six-for there. Since Adil Rashid has left this format, that’s been the missing cog - a frontline spinner.

“When you get a total like that on the board second innings and there’s a bit in the pitch, having a world-class spinner is massive.”

Yorkshire won this game from 13-4 and 38-5 in the first innings. “We drove the game from there,” continued Gale.

“I had no problem with the way we went about our batting in the first innings.

“I said to the lads, ‘Sometimes you have to just give the opposition credit’. I thought Luke Wood probably bowled one of the best spells he has done in his career.

“Yes, we gave them a couple of wickets out of the 10 that we lost, but the attitude and approach to it was good. It just happened that we were 13-4.

“I thought the partnership between Tim Bresnan and Jonny Tattersall (121 for the sixth wicket) was the biggest difference in the game. They showed a lot of character and skill.”

Yorkshire are now 37 points behind leaders Essex with three games to go. They still have a title chance, albeit it a slim one.

Gale admitted there have been two frustrations when reflecting on their title hopes, one extremely recently given Kent gave up a position of strength to lose to Essex earlier this week - bowled out for 40 in their second innings.

“Kent sort of messed it up,” he said.

“Looking back, we missed an opportunity at York (against Warwickshire). That was a game that got away.

“We’ve lost a bit of time (weather) in games we were in front - Essex and Hampshire at home. Particularly Hampshire, we really dominated that. But we’ve shown in this format that we’re going in the right direction.”

Gale also praised Tim Bresnan for his first-innings half-century in his first Championship game since May when he tore a calf in the win against Kent at Canterbury.

He added: “Brez showed all of his experience, and that’s why we wanted him back in the team for this game. He helped get us to a total we could bowl at.

“His batting has come on a lot this year. He’s scored a lot of runs in the second team, particularly the T20s.

“You want that old head there in that situation. He sucked the pressure up and helped Tatts through it.

“I think he’s got a point to prove.

“He hasn’t had as fluent a season as he would like. He’s not one of the first names on the team sheet and has had to work hard to get back in.”