Yorkshire County Cricket Club in 2005 were in the second division of both the County Championship and the totesport League. At 6–1 odds to win the Second Division of the County Championship, they were likely to struggle again – as they had done since they won the First Division championship in 2001. They started the County Championship poorly, being on the wrong end of a draw with Essex. One day after they went to the Oval for their first game in the totesport League, and won a high-scoring thriller. The second Championship game, however, was a comprehensive innings victory over Somerset, who they also beat easily on the Sunday by 5 wickets. The following Sunday they took on, and beat, Sussex County Cricket Club. They then beat Ireland in Belfast on 3 and 4 May to progress to the Second Round of the C&G Trophy, before going on to record two comfortable victories in the Championship against Northamptonshire and Leicestershire. On 17 May they beat Worcestershire to progress to the Quarter-Finals of the C&G Trophy. They then drew with Durham and Essex in the Championship to leave them second in Division Two at the end of May. Yorkshire then beat Bradford/Leeds UCCE before drawing the 4-day Roses clash with Lancashire and going down heavily in a low-scoring match against Leicestershire in the one-day league. Another loss followed, a humiliating one to Lancashire in the inaugural Twenty20 match, before winning a close second game, against Nottinghamshire Outlaws at Trent Bridge. Three losses in the middle of the group stage sent them virtually out of the tournament, though, as they would never have qualified with four losses. However, their Twenty20 wounds were quickly healed, with three victories – in the County Championship, the National League and the C&G Trophy semi-final. They moved into the top three on 23 July when they beat Leicestershire by six wickets, coming back from a first-innings deficit of 179 runs. The following day, they lost to Warwickshire by eight wickets in the National League, to lose sight of the three promotion spots in Division 2. A draw with Derbyshire in the County Championship followed, which saw them jump up to second place in the table. In the National League two days later, however, they lost to Kent by five wickets. A virtual second XI beat Bangladesh A by 126 runs in the first week of August, declaring