Finlay Bean, Joe Root turn the screw for Yorkshire after spin success

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Bess, Moriarty take four wickets each as Glamorgan face hefty deficit

Finlay Bean hits out for Yorkshire  •  Getty Images

Yorkshire 295 for 2 (Bean 140*, J Root 92*) lead Glamorgan 221 (B Root 51, Bess 4-25, Moriarty 4-74) by 74 runs

Spin duo Dom Bess and Dan Moriarty claimed four wickets apiece before pulsating knocks from centurion Fin Bean and Joe Root put Yorkshire on course for victory at the halfway stage of their Vitality County Championship clash with Glamorgan at Headingley.

Glamorgan started day two on 109 for four and were bowled out for 221 during the early afternoon, with off-spinner Bess completing a superb four for 25 from 13 overs and left-armer Moriarty four for 74.

Division Two promotion favourites Yorkshire then batted positively and serenely on a used pitch showing more signs of turn, reaching 295 for two from 49 overs when bad light stopped play with 12 to bowl.

Unbeaten opener Bean hit a career best 140 off 145 balls and Root 92 not out off 90. They shared 201 unbroken for the third wicket.

While current England star Root nears his second successive Championship century, former England spinner Bess performed in his first match of the season.

These were his best first-class figures for Yorkshire since the opening game of 2023 when he claimed a second-innings five for 158 in defeat against Leicestershire here.

Since then, he has been dropped by Yorkshire, been on two one-game loans at Warwickshire and Somerset and spent his winter playing domestic cricket in Zimbabwe, where he claimed a first-class haul of five for 99 for Southern Rocks.

The Devonian, in the last year of his contract, started this summer in Yorkshire’s second team and behind Moriarty in the pecking order.

But this display was a reminder of the significant talent which brought the 26-year-old 14 Test caps, the last of which came in early 2021.

Bess and Moriarty started the day with one and two wickets respectively.

Moriarty made the morning breakthrough when he had Chris Cooke well caught on the cut at cover by Harry Brook, ending a 65-run stand with Colin Ingram – 162 for five in the 56th over, the day’s 15th.

Ingram was then trapped lbw by Bess with only his second ball of the day, for 48, leaving the score at 182-6.

After lunch, both men had batters caught at short-leg.

Moriarty had James Harris caught off bat and pad before Bess had Tom Bevan caught on the reverse sweep for 22, again by Bean, as the ball looped up off glove in the following over – 208 for eight.

Bess then struck again when he had Jamie McIlroy caught at backward square-leg pulling.

The following over, Mir Hamza top-edged a slog sweep at Moriarty and was caught behind to complete the innings in 79 overs.

Six wickets fell in all during the afternoon, two of them in the early stages of Yorkshire’s reply, despite it advancing at pace to tea at 106 for two from 20.

Adam Lyth was trapped lbw by Pakistani overseas quick Hamza before his compatriot Shan Masood, for 34, was caught at short-leg off Mason Crane’s leg-spin.

Yorkshire then upped the tempo even further in the evening, with Bean – dropped on six by Harris off his own bowling – and Root in partnership.

They took toll on a Glamorgan attack missing some key personnel through injury.

On-loan Crane was put under particular pressure, going for 77 in only eight overs. Bean twice slog-swept him over long-on either side of reaching his second fifty of the season off 62 balls. Root followed him to that milestone off 44.

Fifty one runs had come in the first five overs of the evening, and the third-wicket pair didn’t let up in a display which can be best summed up as men against boys.

Belligerent Bean reached his century off 111 balls and hit two more sixes, while Root was all touch and timing. He would have got there but for the light intervening.