Durham v Yorkshire: Artistry of Root saves Yorkshire and seals Test place

“It’s too early for him,” they say.

“He’s better off learning his trade in the middle-order.”

Those so called good judges are talking nonsense.

Root’s 182 at Chester-le-Street on Saturday was an exhibition of technical artistry and near single-handedly inspired Yorkshire to their fourth-highest successful run-chase. Set 336, the visitors cruised home with four wickets and 6.1 overs to spare to record their first victory of the season.

Root’s innings cemented his place in the side for the first Test against New Zealand at Lord’s on May 16.

Although he will have to bide his time to rise to the top of the England order, with Nick Compton – another centurion on Saturday – having done all that could have been asked of him since getting the nod as opener on the winter tour of India, it can only be a matter of time before that happens.

This innings, compiled on a fourth-day pitch in challenging conditions, was the finest of Root’s fledgling career.

One sensed that a wicket could fall at any moment against the new-ball pair of Graham Onions and Chris Rushworth, with the ball always nibbling about and doing a bit, but Root stood tall and strong amid the strong winds and sunshine.

It was a supremely composed and controlled exhibition, one which marked Root down as a player of rare talent and temperament.

Nothing seemed to faze him to the extent that nearby Lumley Castle could have gone up in flames and the first that Root would have heard about it would have been on the evening news, so immersed was he in a cocoon of concentration.

Root’s performance also had the effect of steadily drawing the sting from the Durham attack, which threatened strongly for the first half of the day but not as strongly thereafter as Ben Stokes and, in particular, Scott Borthwick were much too profligate.

Borthwick spent much of his time lobbing up deliveries that positively begged to be hit to the boundary, and why Paul Collingwood did not take the leg-spinner off was a mystery.

Between them, Stokes and Borthwick conceded 183 runs from 35.4 overs, statistics that left Onions and Rushworth with too much to do by the time the second new ball became available and all Durham hope had effectively vanished.

Having been outplayed for much of the match, a Yorkshire win was indeed improbable and effectively made possible by the loss of 69 overs to bad weather – including, significantly, 11 on the third evening.

That prompted Collingwood to declare the Durham second innings earlier than he would have done and gave Yorkshire a sniff they would not otherwise have had, although that in no way detracted from the fact that they – and Root in particular – grabbed that chance by the scruff of the neck.

There certainly seemed no hope of a Yorkshire win when, after resuming day four on 17-0, they slipped to 23-2 inside the first 20 minutes.

Rushworth had Adam Lyth and Phil Jaques caught behind in the space of five balls to leave Yorkshire staring down the barrel.

But Root and Andrew Gale showed character to add 82 in 24 overs, their stand broken eight minutes before lunch when Gale chopped the medium pace of Keaton Jennings to Collingwood at first slip. Root and Jonny Bairstow posted 59 in 19 overs before Bairstow fell in similar fashion to the first innings, caught at long-leg off Stokes.

In the next over, a pivotal moment occurred when Root, on 86, turned a ball from Will Smith for two to deep point.

To the naked eye, it looked touch-and-go as to whether Root had beaten Mark Stoneman’s throw as he completed the second run, but Alex Wharf, the square-leg umpire, turned down vociferous Durham appeals.

Root reached his fifth first-class century from 180 balls with his 14th boundary, driving the hapless Borthwick through mid-off, where Callum Thorp dived over the ball in embarrassing fashion.

The game was still in the balance when Gary Ballance was fifth out with the total on 234, the left-hander caught behind off Stokes while rooted in his crease.

Adil Rashid survived an early scare when Mustard got a glove on a difficult leg-side chance off Stokes, diving to his left, but the leg-spinner played a splendid hand, finishing unbeaten on 50 from 81 balls with seven fours.

The stage was set for Root to hit the winning run but, with just one needed, he was bowled by Thorp, and it was left to Tim Bresnan, to hit the next ball through mid-wicket for the clinching boundary.

Victory will give Yorkshire great confidence and, although a number of players chipped in, it owed almost everything to the rampant Root.

The challenge for Yorkshire going forward is for the rest of the top order batsmen to stand up and make similarly big hundreds when he is not around.