JASON GILLESPIE believes his Yorkshire players are finally coming to terms with how to play one-day cricket after their qualification for the Royal London Cup semi-finals.

The White Rose coach was delighted by their calmness while battling past Essex in Thursday’s topsy turvy quarter-final at Chelmsford as they defended their below par 252-9 to win by 20 runs.

Aside from a run to the final of the Twenty20 Cup in 2012, Gillespie’s first year in charge at Headingley, the county have underachieved massively in the limited overs formats since the Australian took over as coach.

They lost out in last year’s RL50 quarter-final to eventual champions Durham, and have been desperately disappointing in the last three failed T20 group campaigns, including this season.

“One thing that really stood out for me, and I told the lads in the dressing room, was the real calmness about our play,” said Gillespie, ahead of a semi-final against Gloucestershire at Headingley on September 6.

“Essex were 95-1, but the body language and energy was excellent.

“Our clarity with how we’ve wanted to play our one-day cricket this year has been really noticeable.

“We’ve just looked to focus on the process as opposed to looking at the end result. If you can focus on that, it means you can just go out and do your job.

“All the lads spoke about how they were very clear in what they were striving to do.

“That’s something we’ve spoken about a lot during my time at the club in one-day and T20 cricket, make sure you’re completely clear. And lads are really understanding that.

“At times, we did panic in Twenty20. When the bowlers were out there and the batter hit a boundary, all of a sudden everyone was running around like blue arsed flies.

“They were panicking and not focusing on what they need to do, which is the process of bowling the ball on the right spot.

“We’ve had some really good chats about our short-form cricket, particularly after some T20 games that didn’t go our way.

“The lads have been brutally honest in their assessment, and as a support staff we’ve been brutally honest with them as well and how we see things from off the field.

“As a support staff, we open up discussion points, but then we sit back and allow the lads to talk things through.

“We’re far from the finished article. We’re a long way off. It’s sunk in for a while in the Championship, but it’s taken a little bit longer in short-form cricket. However, we are moving in the right direction, and that’s really pleasing.”

Gillespie used Liam Plunkett’s match-turning performance with the bat to illustrate his point about calmness under pressure.

At 202-9, Yorkshire were on the ropes, but Plunkett smashed 49 not out off 32 balls and identified a different way of playing to Jack Leaning, Tim Bresnan and Will Rhodes, who were all caught in the deep on the leg-side having mistimed aggressive shots.

England all-rounder Plunkett won the man-of-the-match award having later added 3-58 from his ten overs with the ball.

“Three of our lads were out hitting to the short boundary. Then Liam comes in and just bombs them straight. They are the things we need to learn,” he added.