Anthony McGrath was as puzzled as he was disappointed after Yorkshire were beaten by an innings inside three days against Leicestershire at the Uptonsteel County Ground, Grace Road.
The White Rose lost for the third time this season, this their eighth game.
They were beaten midway through the third afternoon, bowled out for 229 in their second innings in the face of Leicestershire’s 453 all out. In the first innings, Yorkshire had posted 185.
Leicestershire were much better in all departments this week.
They were ruthless with the ball en-route to a first Division One win since September 2003, and Rehan Ahmed and Nick Kelly both posted first-innings centuries.
Unfortunately for Yorkshire, only two batters in James Wharton and Dan Moriarty posted fifties; Wharton with 56 in the first and Moriarty with a consolatory 51 not out in the second.
As nice as Moriarty played, Yorkshire’s fate – two points for the defeat – was all but decided by then, with him and Jack White sharing a 10th-wicket 67.
It was the county’s highest partnership of a match against the top-flight’s bottom side, who head coach McGrath had plenty of praise for.
He said: “It’s right up there, I think, with one of our worst (performances of the season). Obviously, I’m saying that after Warwickshire and Hampshire.
“But, firstly, I’ve got to mention Leicestershire, who’ve outperformed us with bat, ball, seam, spin and they caught better than us.
“I don’t want to detract anything away from them. They’ve been fighting for their lives, and I know it’s their first win, so we have to give them congratulations. I thought they played really, really well.
“But from us, really, it’s baffling, because it’s a performance that’s come from nowhere, having played so well over the past month.
“I know T20 is a different format, but after Surrey and then Warwickshire in the Championship we had such a good feeling.
“Almost this time last week, we were two wickets away from second or third in the league.
“We spoke about not being complacent, about the position we’re in in the league, how well we’re playing, putting pressure on Leicester, where they’re at, controlling the game from ball one.
“We won the toss, and everything was in our favour. But then, pretty much from 11.10am (on Friday) until now, we’ve been abject, terrible.
“And it’s just baffling why we just keep putting these performances in every now and again.
“To me, I think that has got to be a mentality thing, not complacency, in my opinion.
“It’s very easy to be an average team. I’ve seen that as a player and as a coach, because you can win a couple of games and then lose a couple, and everyone’s like, ‘Oh, well, they’re not a bad team, but you know they’ll never compete.
“The really, really good teams and good individuals on days like this find a way of getting a draw out of it.
“You watch round the grounds, the top teams will be in trouble and get out of it. Now, we’ve done that at Somerset, but we don’t do it well enough.”
Despite McGrath’s frustration, he was determined not to be all doom and gloom.
He added: “It’s not easy to take, but I don’t think we’re far away.
“It’s just the guys recognising you get one chance at this, really, particularly if you want to be a top team and a top club, which we are.
“We’ll 100 percent get there, without doubt.
“I don’t want this to come across at all that it’s desperate streets, because we’re top of the T20 group, we’ve got 50 overs coming up, which we went well in last year, and this league’s shaping up, there’s still six games left.”
