YORKSHIRE captain Andrew Gale believes his side’s battling draw against Sussex in the LV=County Championship could be the result to turn the Tykes season around.

A mature innings of 73 not-out from 21-year-old Gary Ballance helped the county avoid losing for a third straight game in the competition.

“I would like to think that we can look back at this performance to give us motivation for the rest of the season,” said Gale, after seeing the county pick up five points.

“We have got to build on this now. If we start doing that then we will be back were we belong, at the top of the table.”

Few can argue with his thoughts either – after his side put three days of toil on the south coast behind them to produce a thrilling finish.

They looked down and out ahead of the final day, still needing 275 runs to make Sussex bat again on 29-2 in their second-innings.

The more pressing matter was not to lose their last eight remaining wickets though, and thanks to Ballance’s heroics they just about survived.

He came to the crease with Yorkshire in trouble, after two early wickets had ousted Anthony McGrath for 44 and Gale for 26, before staying in the middle for four hours to see his side home.

At first his partner was York-based Jonny Bairstow, who again impressed to make a swashbuckling 76, with Adil Rashid then providing the foil to put the Tykes into a safe position by tea.

They were 260-5 at this stage but when Rashid, (27), Ajmal Shahzad (1) and Ryan Sidebottom (3) then all fell cheaply, suddenly the memories of the Tykes previous narrow defeats this season came to the fore.

With Ballance still unbeaten, there was hope though – and Steve Patterson (2no) then arrived to provide the vital late resistance to spare the county any more late heartache.

Together, they batted diligently for 12.2 overs, until a four from Ballance aptly saw Sussex concede that the game would end as a draw.