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.