Wharton & Root help Yorkshire fight back at Somerset

Rothesay County Championship, Division One, Cooper Associates County Ground, Taunton (day three)

Yorkshire 162 & 365-9: Wharton 92, Root 64; Overton 3-97

Somerset 274: Thomas 136; White 4-41

Yorkshire (3 pts) lead Somerset (4 pts) by 253 runs with one wicket remaining

Match scorecard

Half-centuries from James Wharton and Joe Root kept Yorkshire in with a fighting chance on the third day of the County Championship Division One match at the Cooper Associates County Ground, Taunton.

A resolute batting display saw the visitors advance their second innings score from an overnight 13-0 365-9, Wharton top-scoring with an impressive 92, while Root contributed 64 and Jhye Richardson a priceless 48 not out batting at 10.

Yorkshire take a lead of 253 into the final day.

But, with an increasingly benign pitch offering little to the bowlers, Somerset will still consider themselves favourites to record a third Championship victory in their first four games.

Yorkshire had added only 11 to their overnight score when Craig Overton found a way past the outside edge of Fin Bean's defensive push and bowled him for 12. It was 43-2 when Adam Lyth aimed a loose drive at the same bowler and edged through to wicketkeeper James Rew.

That was as good as it got for Somerset in the morning session on a now unresponsive pitch.

Root survived a huge lbw shout from a Lewis Gregory delivery on two and, having added 10, edged Migael Pretorius just short of Overton at second slip.

But, with Wharton in confident mood from the outset, the pair were soon looking comfortable, forcing Somerset to change to spin in the 26th over.

Root greeted the introduction of Archie Vaughan's off-spin with a reverse swept four that brought up the half-century stand.

A cover driven boundary by Root off Vaughan wiped out Yorkshire's first-innings deficit and put them two runs ahead.

By lunch, that advantage had grown to 28 with the total 140-2. Root reached a 79-ball fifty soon after the interval and Wharton followed to the same landmark off 99 deliveries, having lost nothing in comparison with his illustrious team-mate.

It was a major surprise when, with the score advanced to 166-2, Root failed to connect with a drive off a full-length ball from Overton, who celebrated extravagantly when the stumps were disturbed.

The Somerset man then went for 21 off an over as Wharton responded to losing his partner with a boundary barrage and Jonny Bairstow quickly went on the attack.

At 209-3 off 50 overs, the umpires sanctioned a ball change and three wickets fell for the addition of only 17 runs as Bairstow top-edged a catch to third-man off Pretorius, who then had Matthew Revis caught behind for a single.

When Wharton's impressive knock came to an end, edging Alfie Ogborne to Gregory at first slip having hit 12 boundaries, Yorkshire were 226-6 and only 114 in front.

George Hill and Dom Bess stopped the slide and took the total to 257-6 at tea, a lead of 145.

Hill played well for his 31, but another ball change after 70.2 overs worked for Somerset again as he edged Gregory to Overton at second slip to make it 273-7.

That became 286-8 when Logan van Beek was bowled by a delivery from Vaughan that turned significantly to beat his back-foot forcing shot.

The second new ball was taken at 294-8. Yorkshire kept battling and former Somerset player Bess survived two painful blows to contribute a valuable 40, adding 51 for the ninth wicket with Richardson before skying a sweep off Vaughan and being caught at deep mid-wicket.

Richardson then calmly farmed the strike with last man Jack White before yet another ball change just 23 overs after the second new one had been taken.

By the time the floodlights had to be turned off at 7pm due to council regulations and bad light ended play two balls early, the pair had added a further 28 runs to compound a frustrating day for Somerset.

Report by ECB Reporters' Network, supported by Rothesay.