YORKSHIRE skipper Andrew Gale believes his side are still playing to only 70 per cent of their potential in limited-overs competitions.

The Vikings defeated Derbyshire Falcons by seven runs under the Duckworth-Lewis system in Monday's rain-delayed game at the County Ground.

But Gale is looking for more from his players as they gear up for away games against Surrey, Worcestershire and Durham over the next five days.

That schedule begins at The Oval today and Gale is aware that his team need to build on their victory in bleak conditions at Derby.

"We said in the dressing room after the win on Monday that we were at 70 per cent of our potential," said Gale.

"I thought we could have got 20-30 more runs by rotating the strike a little more – and bowling-wise, I thought we bowled too many four balls at times.

"We also dropped a couple of catches – but the important thing is that we got the win and that will give us confidence going forward. We held our nerve at the end and we can take a lot from that."

Yet Gale also has no doubts about the different challenge that awaits his players today, nor does he doubt its magnitude.

The Vikings skipper said: "Surrey will be tough opposition. They're a good one-day side on their own ground and it'll probably be a rather more attacking brand of cricket down there on a flatter pitch.

"It'll be nice for the batters to go down and play on that sort of pitch instead of the ones up north! Scarborough was a bit of a nibbler and then we had the surface at Derby. It'll be a good game at The Oval.

"We're trying to take some of our plans from four-day cricket into the 50-over format – the lengths that we bowl, keeping wickets in hand – and I thought that against Derbyshire we did that very well.

"We needed one guy to go through and get 60 or 70 on that pitch and Gary Ballance did that.

"The important thing was that we had wickets in hand on that pitch for the last 15 to 17 overs because we gave ourselves an opportunity to get to 240 off 42 overs."

Gale was also full of praise for seamer Steve Patterson, who bowled the penultimate over that went a long way towards ensuring that Yorkshire emerged victorious from the weather-delayed game.

"I thought that penultimate over of Steve's was outstanding," said Gale.

"If Gary Ballance had caught the catch he dropped on the boundary, Steve would have only gone for four or five runs and the way he bowled ensured that it was always going to be tough for them in the final over.

"Steve hasn't played that much T20 cricket but we've trained really hard on our skills this last week and it was nice to see it paying dividends out there.

"But Will Rhodes is also a good performer for us. He's been outstanding in all three formats and he's getting more confident with every game that he plays."