County Championship: Joe Root's 99 puts Yorkshire on top in Cardiff

Joe Root's sublime 99 put Yorkshire in a strong position going into the final day against Glamorgan.

At one stage, Michael Neser's 5-39 put Glamorgan on top as Yorkshire slipped to 111-8.

But a ninth-wicket stand of 118 between Root and Steven Patterson (47 not out) changed the course of the game.

Play started at around 13:10 BST after heavy rain overnight and through the morning, and it started to look like a repeat of Friday's wicket-fest as Michael Neser completed his five-for when he removed both Dom Bess (20) and 19-year-old Harry Duke for a golden duck on debut.

But Glamorgan's change bowlers struggled to make an impact with an older ball and Root and Patterson looked very comfortable on a pitch that seemed to be getting easier to bat on.

Root did not give away a chance on his way to 99 - his first dismissal on that number in his career - until he got an inside edge on to his stumps off Dan Douthwaite's bowling.

Glamorgan's top order struggles continued as they fell to 43-3 with Joe Cooke (6), Marnus Labuschagne (0) and Billy Root (13) out early.

Labuschagne's three-ball duck takes his tally to just 33 runs from four innings so far.

But Glamorgan's in-form batsmen, David Lloyd (40) and Kiran Carlson (44) put on a useful partnership of 65 in the closing stages and comfortably negotiated their way to the close.

Carlson in particular batted positively with his 44 coming off just 42 balls.

England Test captain Joe Root told BBC Radio Leeds:

"We feel like we're in a really good position, at one stage it looked as if we'd be facing a deficit so it was a really crucial partnership (between Root and Patterson) and managed to get that batting point as well.

"It was seaming around a bit and some uneven bounce off the grass, but as the ball got a bit soft it played into our hands a bit.

"It can be tricky as a captain when you've got one player you'd rather bowl at, like the number 10, but I think when the field goes back it releases a bit of pressure on the batting side and that's how it felt for us.

"My own dismissal was a poor shot on that wicket but in the context of things I'll look back on the innings very fondly if we win this game.

"It has been great to play some county cricket and some red ball stuff ahead of a very exciting year of Test cricket and I feel like I will definitely benefit from having these games in the bank (before the New Zealand series in June)."

Glamorgan all-rounder Dan Douthwaite told BBC Radio Wales:

"It would have been nice to get Joe Root earlier but getting a player of that calibre at all is pretty special.

"It was weird how it happened seeing that Kiran Carlson told me two balls before, that I going to get him out trying to dab it to third man and he'd chop it on to the stumps, and I did.

"I've had a few people messaging me saying he's my bunny (after dismissing Root at Headingley) but I wouldn't go that far!

"It is quite a tough pitch but if you can get yourself in and play that front-foot brand of cricket, it's not the worst to try to go big, as Joe, Patterson, then Kiran and Dai Lloyd at the end all showed."