Jordan Clark grabbed the headlines on Sunday after picking up a hat-trick on Day 1 of the Roses match between Lancashire and Yorkshire, removing Joe Root, Kane Williamson and Jonny Bairstow. England captain Root and New Zealand skipper Williamson are third and fourth in the International Cricket Council’s Test batting rankings, with Bairstow a far from lowly 16th in the standings. Between them the Yorkshire trio have scored more than 14,000 Test runs yet they all succumbed off successive balls to the 27-year-old Clark on the first day of the ‘Roses’ County Championship match, with Root and Bairstow’s hopes of spending time in the middle batting in red-ball cricket ahead of England’s first Test against India next month now resting on the second innings.
The England captain was trapped in front by a full delivery on the fourth ball of the 19th over. The Kiwi skipper Williamson was dismissed in similar fashion caught on the crease and Bairstow flashed wide and the outside edge was taken at slip by Jos Buttler. The three batsmen dismissed have 14,639 runs between them. The 27-year-old became only the first bowler to take a hat-trick in a Roses Test since Ken Higgs at Headingley in 1968.
Electing to bat first, Yorkshire openers Adam Lyth and Harry Brook saw off the new ball duo of James Anderson and Tom Bailey, but the introduction of Graham Onions broke their defiance with the latter getting bowled in the 14th over.
Root, who scored an unbeaten century in the final ODI against India, hit five boundaries and took his side’s score past the 50-run mark. But Clark’s burst tipped the scales in favour of the visitors, and the home side headed for lunch reeling at 65/4.
