Yorkshire must improve their batting if they are to have any chance of qualifying for the quarter-finals of the Friends Provident Trophy.

That is the message from director of professional cricket Martyn Moxon, who believes his side will have to win all three of their remaining Group ‘C’ matches, starting with Durham at Headingley today.

The White Rose have lost their last three games, with their most recent two against Gloucestershire and Surrey involving all too familiar batting collapses.

The collapse against Surrey at Headingley last Monday, when the hosts fell from 63-1 to 91-8 in pursuit of 185, provided the backdrop for Moxon’s infamous run-in with an angry member.

And Yorkshire slumped to 49-5 against high flyers Gloucester at Bristol two days ago.

Batting collapses have been a regular occurrence for the county over the last two seasons in both one-day and four-day cricket.

“Nobody means to get out,” said Moxon. “But all I want from our batsmen is for them to show some positive intent, even in defence. If we are doing that, then we will be fine. We can’t be tentative. When people aren’t scoring runs freely, the first thing you do is become a little bit tentative. We have got to put that to the back of our minds.

“Three wins would get us safe. But to do that we have got to get back to batting as a unit. The bottom line is, we are capable of winning our last three matches.”

Moxon and captain Anthony McGrath, the county’s form batsman, decided to go with an extra bowler in David Wainwright at Bristol.

Michael Vaughan’s hamstring twinge is being reassessed, as is McGrath’s minor back problem. Left-hander Adam Lyth could come into the side for his first game of the season to beef up the top order.

McGrath said: “We have chatted to Adam quite a lot, and he is disappointed. Unfortunately he has missed out so far, but he may have a shout against Durham. One good thing for Adam is he didn’t start in the team last year, but ended up playing 75 per cent of the games.”

Moxon added: “He will get an opportunity at some point, maybe today.”

Wicketkeeper Simon Guy will continue to deputise for hand injury victim Gerard Brophy.