Perth's Whiteman, who was born down the road from the Leeds venue in the Yorkshire town of Doncaster, had cherished the idea of scoring a ton for the White Rose and it was a proud moment when, watched by England great Root at the other end, he went to three figures on Sunday.
Unbeaten on 73 overnight against Sussex on a belter of a track, the left-hander moved determinedly on to his hundred, clearly impressing Root as he went to the landmark off 188 balls with a lovely straight six off the spin of James Coles.
Having been congratulated by his illustrious teammate, the West Australian couldn't kick on and was soon dismissed seven balls later by paceman Henry Crocombe for 101.
Yet that just left the stage to Root who, in his first first-class innings since the Ashes 109 days earlier, looked sure to make a hundred, only to feather one behind to the keeper, also off Crocombe, after he'd swanned to 96.
Yorkshire, though, continued to make hay, with even Aussie paceman Jhye Richardson coming in to join the fun with 35 at No.10 as they passed Sussex's monumental 502, to make 511.
When Sussex batted again, Richardson, who'd been battered for a wicketless 131 in his first innings, produced a beauty to bowl compatriot Daniel Hughes for a four-ball duck as the visitors finished on 2-31.
Like Root, England colleague Ben Duckett also fell in the nervous nineties, succumbing for 93 at Trent Bridge as defending champs Nottinghamshire set up an exciting finish with Beau Webster's Warwickshire, reaching 4-310 after following on with captain Haseeb Hameed making 115.
Webster took 1-14 off his six handy overs, but Notts were 130 ahead with six wickets in hand.
Jake Weatherald was unable to resume his knock on 103no for Leicestershire after he had retired hurt the night before, and the Aussie Test opener missed out on another run feast as they amassed 5-500 at Cardiff in reply to Glamorgan's 440.
Aussie quick Ryan Hadley did well amongst the carnage, taking 2-90 off his 23 overs, including the wicket of skipper Ian Holland for 79.
Lancashire set themselves up for a victory push against promotion rivals Durham at Chester-le-Street, with Paul Coughlin (100no) and Michael Jones (72) doing the business after a rare failure from first-innings centurion Marcus Harris (12).
James Anderson declared on 9-260 with a lead of 335, but the 43-year-old maestro was thwarted by bad light as he sought late wickets.
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