Root of all daredevilry lifts Yorkshire (From York Press)

Root of all daredevilry lifts Yorkshire

10:38am Saturday 14th July 2012 in Sport By Chris Parrott

It is fair to say this game will not live long in the memory.

Poor weather means it is heading for a drab draw ahead of the final day thanks to the fact that only 26 overs of play were possible on either Wednesday or Thursday.

But try telling Joe Root that this week’s trip to face Hampshire in the LV=County Championship has not been worthwhile though and you’ll get a very different answer.

This is after he added to his burgeoning reputation with a magnificent double century in Southampton yesterday.

A new career-best, the 21-year-old finished on 222 not out as Yorkshire reached 350-9 in their first innings.

“I’m very proud of what I’ve achieved,” said the youngster.

“It’s definitely one of the highlights of my career. It was great to get us up to 350 as a team though so it’s hard to put into words what I'm feeling really.”

Root’s knock was all the more impressive given the importance of his runs to the total.

The other nine batsmen managed just 128 between them.

Resuming on 46, for much of the day he was the only Tykes batsman who had the measure of the Hampshire attack.

His initial partner Gary Ballance perished in the first ten minutes of play, before Anthony McGrath (5) and Rich Pyrah (0) also came and went quickly to leave Yorkshire in trouble on 108-6.

At this stage Root looked like he might be marooned in the 70s, but any fears of a quick ending to the Tykes innings were fortunately unfounded for both him and his team.

Azeem Rafiq (29) and Steve Patterson (37) were the reason for this – adding 53 and 121 runs respectively for the seventh and eighth wickets.

It was with Patterson that Root’s 100 came up off 176 balls, before the right-hander then truly cut loose to plunder his next century off only 84 deliveries.

The standing ovation he got was certainly deserved, with this just the fourth time in the ground’s 11-year history that a visiting player has made a double-century.

Remarkably his efforts also led Yorkshire to a fourth batting bonus point, before a declaration was made at 350-9.

Hampshire reached 39 without loss, with Steve Harmison’s first over in a Yorkshire shirt the only notable happening – three of his first four balls were wides.