{"id":566458,"date":"2026-05-04T23:15:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T23:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/566458\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T23:15:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T23:15:09","slug":"we-were-ruthless-root","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/566458\/","title":{"rendered":"We were ruthless &#8211; Root"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-29349\" class=\"wp-image-29349\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2274460021-300x193.jpg.webp.webp\" alt=\"Joe Root \" width=\"811\" height=\"522\"  \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-29349\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Picture by Harry Trump\/Getty Images. Joe Root celebrates the dismissal of Craig Overton, one of his four final day wickets.<\/p>\n<p>Joe Root was full of praise for Dom Bess after the pair combined to claim four wickets apiece and spin Yorkshire to victory on day four at Taunton.<\/p>\n<p>Root\u2019s off-spin accounted for 4-49 and Bess\u2019s 4-60 as Somerset, chasing 260, slipped to 184 all out after tea, securing 19 points for the White Rose.<\/p>\n<p>This was Root\u2019s second game of the season in the Rothesay County Championship, and he contributed a second-innings 64 in addition to his first-innings 33. Bess also contributed with the bat, chipping in with a crucial second-innings 40.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think he\u2019s bowled beautifully all season,\u201d said Root, of Bess.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought he bowled well last week on a wicket that gave us nothing (against Sussex at Headingley), and again today.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs the game progressed, and there was more to work with, he did it brilliantly.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think he\u2019s more in the game when he bowls it a little bit slower, and it was great to see today. He should take a huge amount of confidence from that.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fact that he seems a more rounded bowler now, and he can do different roles within the team, is really encouraging for him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlso, he\u2019s just played more cricket.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEveryone expects spinners to be \u2013 even if they come in to Test Cricket early \u2013 the finished article at 25-years-old. But it\u2019s a completely different journey to a lot of players. You don\u2019t really hit your peak until your mid-thirties. You need a bit more experience and more time out there.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought he managed this game brilliantly throughout. His batting is getting better all the time as well. So there\u2019s a lot of good stuff for him to look forward to for the rest of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Root echoed coach Anthony McGrath\u2019s post-match quotes when he said: \u201cAny time you\u2019re in a deficit of over 100 runs, to find a way back into the game, get yourself into a position where you can then go on and do what we did today, it shows a lot about the character of the group and the skill level.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe just managed the game really well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe adapted to the conditions throughout.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think we probably had the worst of it, so it was a good toss for them to win. But you needed to make the most of the first innings. And for us to restrict them to what we did was excellent (274 in reply to 162).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe managed to create pressure and squeeze the game really well. They never really got away from us.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrom day two onwards, when we had the overheads and it started swinging around, we were able to take wickets then. But they\u2019d not got away from us because of how consistent we\u2019d been and how well we\u2019d squeezed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSimilarly today when it was spinning.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe hard work we put in at the start of the game, the fact that the board didn\u2019t move much, it meant we got the rewards when the pitch was deteriorating.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was good.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe lads set the tone exceptionally well with the new ball today.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was always going to be important to try and make early inroads, but we also felt like it was going to be hard to face spin.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you set good fields and you blocked off the boundary options, then it was going to be very difficult for them to rotate risk-free.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere was always going to be something in there for us.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs I say, I thought Bessy did brilliantly.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGoing at 2.5 in his 25 overs and taking four wickets \u2013 and they were probably the most important wickets \u2013 was vital.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The victory chance today was set up by some determined batting yesterday, with James Wharton\u2019s excellent 92 leading the way, followed by Root\u2019s 64 and Jhye Richardson\u2019s 50, the latter completed first thing this morning.<\/p>\n<p>On Wharton, who had previously endured a slow and disrupted start to the summer, Root said: \u201cI\u2019ve seen him bat for a couple of years and have known he\u2019s a very good player.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s been difficult, more through circumstance. He missed out last week, and when he came back into the team, he was in when we\u2019d lost the toss on a pitch with 12 mm of live grass. And you\u2019re then on a pair going into the second innings.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut he managed his game really well second innings.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s been able to rotate the strike and was constantly looking to move the board forwards in a low-risk way.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe went up and down the gears at different times, he absorbed pressure, and then when he got his opportunities to score, he took them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHopefully he takes a lot from the way he played there, and when he gets more opportunities further into the summer, he rinses and repeats and goes on and makes it a real daddy hundred.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Root continued: \u201cI think that was very much a result pitch.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fact we lost pretty much a full day\u2019s play and there was still 40 wickets, it shows it was designed for that, which is fine. It made for a great game and a great spectacle.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhenever you win a game of cricket, you look at what have you done differently throughout compared to the previous games.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just think we managed it really well, like I said, the key moments in the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe understood when it was going to be difficult, and we absorbed. When it was time to strike, we did, and we were pretty ruthless with it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe took our catches and our chances, and we scrapped hard to get to that score second innings (371 all out).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it would be wrong not to mention the way Jhye batted for his fifty and Jack, facing 35 balls. They were important runs in a low-scoring game.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo go from a 210-lead to 260, that\u2019s a big margin. What did we win by, 75 runs. Take 30 off that and there\u2019s a completely different complexion to it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m really chuffed for Jhye. He might not have got the rewards he\u2019d like with the ball so far. But, to have a valuable contribution like that to add to a win, hopefully that gives him a lot of confidence as well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As much as Root\u2019s wickets were valuable today, clearly scoring runs is his main role \u2013 and in three innings so far against Sussex and Somerset, he has posted scores of 96, 33 and 64.<\/p>\n<p>He will be rested for Friday\u2019s trip to face Warwickshire at Edgbaston but returns to face Surrey at Headingley a week later.<\/p>\n<p>The 35-year-old added: \u201cIt\u2019s nice, but I don\u2019t feel great at the crease at the minute.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fact I\u2019m still scoring and contributing, I think that comes with experience and having a good understanding of my own game.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe more and more I\u2019m playing, the more I\u2019m starting to find a bit more rhythm.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m having the next game off, so I\u2019ve got a week to groove things over again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Picture by Harry Trump\/Getty Images. Joe Root celebrates the dismissal of Craig Overton, one of his four final&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":566459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-566458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-cricket","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/566459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}