REPORT | Derbyshire top order shine on opening day against Northamptonshire

Derbyshire’s top order batters dominated the headlines on opening day of the Rothesay County Championship Division Two match against Northamptonshire at The Central Co-op County Ground.

Caleb Jewell responded to moving down the order after scoring only 58 runs in six innings with an unbeaten 91 as the home side’s batsmen dominated day one at Derby.

Harry Came made 73, Matthew Montgomery 54 and skipper Wayne Madsen 57 not out to take Derbyshire to 342 for 3 with Ben Sanderson taking 1 for 52 from 20 overs.

Madsen also registered his 24,000th all format run for the county, reaching the milestone with his first run of the day.

After losing the previous three games, Derbyshire needed to restore some confidence and on a sunny morning, Came and Luis Reece batted through the opening session with few alarms.

On a pitch which offered little in terms of movement, it looked a good toss to win with the visitors using seven bowlers to try and break the stand.

Sanderson and skipper Luke Procter, making his 100th first-class appearance for Northants, kept it tight but Harry Conway struggled to maintain a consistent line, conceding 33 from his first five overs.

Came completed his third 50 of the season before Derbyshire reached their first century opening stand of the campaign shortly before lunch.

It was the sixth time the pair have shared an opening stand of a hundred or more in first-class cricket but they were parted in the second over after the interval.

Reece played a loose clip off his legs against Conway which ended in the hands of mid-wicket but Came and Montgomery were forging another partnership until Sanderson was rewarded for a testing spell from the Racecourse End.

Increasing cloud cover enabled Sanderson to get some swing and he moved one away to have Came caught at slip.

Jewell had scored only one half-century this season and he struggled initially, particularly against Sanderson who beat him several times.

But the left-hander fought his way through and with the other seamers unable to match Sanderson’s discipline, started to impose himself on the bowling.

With Montgomery reaching 50 before tea, Derbyshire were well placed but for the second time they lost a wicket early in a session.

The leg-spin of Calvin Harrison made the breakthrough with Montgomery pinned in front when he missed a defensive push.

But once again, the visitors were unable to build on that as Madsen, captaining Derbyshire for the 150th time in all competitions, joined Jewell to swing the momentum back towards his team.

Although the floodlights were now on, the pair negotiated the second new ball and by the close had added 107 when bad light ended played four overs early.

Derbyshire opener Harry Came said: “It’s a really positive day. Winning the toss and batting first, to lose only three wickets and have 300 plus on the board is really pleasing.

“To go in at lunch with no wickets down was really good. There was a bit of nip there early on so we had to get through that tricky period.

“Reecey (Luis Reece) has opened the batting most of his career so it’s not too much of a change and he’s been playing unbelievably as we’ve seen in the first four games.”

On Caleb Jewell’s return to form he said: “It’s been a tough few weeks for him, obviously last week was tough for all of us as batsmen, so to see him finish the day 90 odd not out is really good for us as a team and for him personally.”