Nottinghamshire contained with the ball then countered with the bat on a day of two contrasting halves at Derbyshire’s Incora County Ground.
While the visitors’ bowling attack found wickets hard to come by for long periods, they restricted the scoring rate of a mere 2.54 run-an over across a 50-over innings of 127-4.
The Green and Golds’ line-up then proceeded to attack the Derbyshire bowling with abandon, despite losing batsmen at regular intervals, with Joe Clarke and Liam Patterson-White powering to fluent half-centuries in a total of 234-7 by the close.
Steven Mullaney’s men returned to the scene of their 310-run victory in the 2021 County Championship and fielded first by prior arrangement, with Luke Fletcher and Brett Hutton bowling with accuracy and control on their way to combined figures of 1-33 from 20 overs.
Fletcher won the battle of the seasoned pros by trapping Wayne Madsen lbw for 28, by which time Lyndon James had already made his first mark on the contest by nicking off Billy Godleman for 13.
The Academy graduate’s lively ten-overs represented a key signpost in his journey back to full fitness following the back injury that had prevented him from bowling during the back end of the previous season.
And, as Luis Reece (11) was bamboozled, beaten and bowled by the left-arm spin of Patterson-White, and Ben Duckett added the run out of Leus Du Ploy (19) with a deft direct hit in the closing stages of the innings, Notts’ disciplined efforts received some late reward.
The obduracy of of the bowling effort was in stark contrast to the marked positivity on show during the latter half of the day with the bat, with James (26), Duckett (27) and Steven Mullaney (16) all playing with fluency prior to their all too early departure, despite the opening duo of Ben Slater (1) and Haseeb Hameed (6) having perished to Cohen and Conners respectively against the new ball.
Joe Clarke matched the cameo-making trio for attacking intent, striking the ball handsomely and repeatedly to the boundary en-route to a 62-ball half-century, before ultimately retiring with his score on 58 off 83.
With the light fading fast, Tom Moores gloved a vicious George Scrimshaw delivery through to the keeper to depart for nine. However, Patterson-White ensured that Nottinghamshire’s foot remained firmly upon the accelerator as his 55 came from just 34 deliveries.
The left-hander played on to Nick Potts shortly before the close, leaving Joey Evison (21*) and Brett Hutton (7*) to see the visitors through to stumps and bring to an end a day of stark contrasts between the East Midlands rivals, who will conclude this fixture tomorrow before meeting many more times during the course of 2022.
A full scorecard and highlights clips are available to view here…
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