ALTHOUGH Yorkshire were not finalising their side until shortly before the toss, the odds seemed to be shifting in favour of captain David Byas including both Darren Gough and Craig White in today's Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy quarter-final match against Warwickshire at Headingley.

Immediately after Yorkshire destroyed Warwickshire for 59 without the assistance of either Gough or White in the day-night encounter on Monday, Byas had hinted that although England had made them available for today's match they might not necessarily play.

"Why attempt to mend something when it isn't broken?" he asked.

But, possibly feeling under some pressure from England, Byas yesterday suggested the Test pair may play, perhaps at the expense of fast bowling sensation Steven Kirby and off-spinner Richard Dawson.

"Kirby is doing superbly well but basically he is more of a Championship bowler at this stage of his career and quite possibly he was surprised to find himself in the one-day team so soon," he added.

Privately, though, Byas was weighing up whether it was worth leaving out Kirby, who grabbed three wickets on Monday as Warwickshire slumped to 12 for six, to bring in Gough who went for 60 runs without taking a wicket against Surrey in the previous round of the C&G Trophy.

Byas admitted that beating Warwickshire by 175 runs under the floodlights on Monday had given Yorkshire a huge boost but he still warned against complacency.

"Warwickshire will not play as badly as that again," he said.

"Kirby and Silverwood bowled splendidly early on but the batsmen also played some very poor strokes.

"It was one of those freak collapses which can happen to anyone and Warwickshire will write it off and concentrate on to the next game."

That, no doubt, is exactly what Warwickshire's coach, Bob Woolmer, would have told his team behind the dressing room door which was slammed shut for a long while after Monday's thrashing.

They will also be encouraged by the fact that not only did Warwickshire reach last year's final, where they were beaten by Gloucestershire, but they have much the better record against Yorkshire in the competition down the years, winning five of the seven encounters.

Updated: 12:36 Wednesday, July 25, 2001