Lancashire v Yorkshire: Root gives Yorkshire small fillip in Roses encounter

SIMON GUY said he was looking forward to “four days of fun with my friends” after being drafted in as an emergency wicketkeeper for his first Yorkshire appearance since 2009.

Four days of frustration might have been more apposite – or even three days judging by the way this game has gone.

Yorkshire head into day three trailing by 186 runs after Lancashire reached 327-8 in reply to their own meagre 141.

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It will take a rousing recovery or some wonky weather to prevent bragging rights remaining on this side of the Pennines.

As the scoreboard would suggest, an under-strength Yorkshire have been roundly outplayed at the arboreal Aigburth ground.

A team missing Tim Bresnan, Ajmal Shahzad, Jonny Bairstow, Rich Pyrah, Gerard Brophy and Anthony McGrath have been dominated by opponents who went into this match second in the First Division, two points behind Nottinghamshire with a game in hand.

On the evidence of the first two days, Yorkshire do not have the strength in depth to compete against the top sides with so many first-choice players unavailable.

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There is plenty of pluck, plenty of fighting spirit, but precious little point in trying to paper over the cracks.

The damage was not done yesterday but on day one, when Yorkshire’s total after being sent into bat – and their rate of scoring – were not what the doctor ordered.

Yorkshire took 73.3 overs to score their runs and collapsed from 95-2 to lose their last eight wickets for 46 runs, the last five wickets tumbling for 12 runs.

It was always going to be difficult to fight back from there and, despite a bold effort to do so yesterday, Lancashire reached the halfway stage firmly in charge.

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The home side scored 271 runs on day two for the loss of seven wickets to raise hopes of a fourth win in five Championship games.

Around 2,000 spectators were present at the Liverpool outground, which was bathed in sunshine for much of the day and mercifully free of the biting northerly wind that bedevilled day one.

Yorkshire took the field wearing black armbands in memory of Academy player Alex Lees’s father Simon, who lost his cancer battle last week and whose funeral was held yesterday.

Lancashire had added only 13 runs to their overnight 56-1 when Steve Patterson claimed the first wicket of the day, having Karl Brown lbw to a ball from the Pavilion End that appeared to keep low.

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Patterson is just starting to rediscover the form that made him one of Yorkshire’s top performers last summer and he was the ideal bowler for these conditions, which suited his wicket-to-wicket style.

Yorkshire stuck to their task well collectively but found wickets hard to come by as Paul Horton and Mark Chilton lifted Lancashire into lunch on 130-2.

The home side edged into the lead when Horton leg-glanced Ryan Sidebottom for four only to depart in the following over seven runs short of what would have been a well-deserved hundred.

Horton was caught behind off leg-spinner Adil Rashid having faced 199 balls and struck nine fours, his dismissal ending a stand of 81 in 32 overs with Chilton.

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Yorkshire strove hard to squeeze the scoring but Lancashire ticked along safe in the knowledge they did not need to force the issue – merely to play sensibly and pick off bad balls when they came along.

Rashid served up a few too many of those, dropping short on several occasions and having nowhere near the same impact Gary Keedy achieved for Lancashire.

Instead it was part-time off-spinner Joe Root who looked the more threatening for Yorkshire, extracting turn and bounce to suggest it might not be long before the term ‘part-time’ is ditched.

After Chilton guided a ball from Moin Ashraf to slip shortly after tea, thereby ending a fine innings of 77 in curious style, Root struck twice in successive balls to reduce Lancashire to 244-6 as they suffered a mini-wobble.

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First, Root induced Steven Croft to play-on for 41 before having Gareth Cross lbw.

Such was Root’s impact, Yorkshire captain Andrew Gale delayed taking the second new ball for 21 overs to give the youngster a decent twirl from the Pavilion end.

When Gale finally called for the new cherry, Sidebottom bowled Farveez Maharoof for 34 to claim his first wicket of the innings.

The visitors’ hopes of ejecting Lancashire before stumps were snuffed out by Luke Procter and Lancashire captain Glen Chapple, who added 22 in six overs before Chapple was lbw to Sidebottom for 18.

Proctor finished unbeaten on 23 and James Anderson undefeated on four as Lancashire left the field with the applause of their followers ringing in their ears.