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County Championship, Group One

vs Derbyshire

Day One

Morning: Pears won the toss and put Derbyshire in to bat on a green-tinged pitch beneath sunny but windy Derby skies. For a short while it seemed like a sensible decision; Joe Leach angled a delivery in towards Luis Reece in the very first over, and the opener was LBW for 4 playing across the line. However, though a series of chances and half-chances followed, with catches of varying difficulty going down both high and low, the hosts scored at a brisk and confident pace during a second-wicket partnership that reached lunch on 119-1, comfortably claiming the best of the session.

Afternoon: The stand desperately needed breaking, and it was Leach who did the honours, enticing Billy Godleman to push forward at a delivery that moved away from him and was caught behind for 50. With the door open, Dillon Pennington supplied the next breakthrough quickly with a ball that jumped up off a length, taking the shoulder of Wayne Madsen's bat for a sharp and superb catch above head height at second slip for 1. From there, Matt Critchley and Leus Du Plooy resumed the resistance and the relatively carefree scoring for Derbyshire, and the latter looked good for a century before attempting to pull Brett D'Oliveira into the legside on 98 and being bowled, rewarding the Pears leggy for another long and economical showing. 249-4 at tea, the session was slightly more even than the first, but with the advantage overall still firmly belonging to the home side.

Evening: There was a long, cold and miserable couple of hours in store for the visitors after the break, with Derbyshire seemingly on the verge of batting Worcestershire out of the game. It took until nearly half past six before the clatter of wickets began, with the first pair in consecutive deliveries from Ed Barnard, who dismissed centurion Matt Critchley LBW for 108 and then struck new man Anoj Dal a glancing blow on the front pad which was also adjudged leg-before for a golden duck. After surviving the hat-trick ball and steadying the ship briefly, Derbyshire then faced another two dismissals in two balls, this time from debutant Alzarri Joseph; Fynn Hudson-Prentice edged behind for 6, and a wicked swinging yorker sent Michael Cohen packing for another golden duck. Those four late scalps made the scoreboard a little more respectable as the hosts closed on 360-8, still the clear victors on a day where they lost the toss and were put in to bat, but allowing the Pears a much-needed foothold in the game.