REPORT & INTERVIEW | Aitchison and Madsen score brilliant centuries on opening day in Northampton

Derbyshire captain Wayne Madsen and all-rounder Ben Aitchison scored contrasting centuries to rescue their side with a stunning partnership after Northamptonshire’s bowlers engineered a batting collapse on day one of this Rothesay County Championship match at Wantage Road.

With promotion hopefuls Northamptonshire hunting precious bowling bonus points, a pacy Liam Guthrie took three for 66, passing 100 career first-class wickets, including his 50th for Northamptonshire, as Derbyshire slumped to 51 for four and 107 for six.

But Madsen counterattacked in compiling an excellent 151, his second century of the season, collecting 17 boundaries as Derbyshire were bowled out for 372.

Aitchison played and missed repeatedly early in his innings but grew in confidence while making 106, his second first-class century. He struck 14 fours and one six as he and Madsen put on 197 in 41.4 overs, the second-highest seventh-wicket stand for Derbyshire against Northants. The stand follows the 208 this pair put on for the sixth at Lord’s earlier this season when Aitchison scored his maiden ton.

Eyeing a victory to stay ahead of promotion rivals Kent, Guthrie set the tone early for the Steelbacks. Bowling with a noticeable pace, he proved a constant threat throughout the morning and early afternoon, finding movement and deploying the short ball to good effect. He was backed up well by his fellow seamers with Ben Sanderson and Harry Conway both taking three wickets.

But as the Madsen-Aitchison partnership grew, Northants’ bowlers increasingly lost intensity and precision. Frustration grew amid some notable errors in the field before they rallied to take the last three wickets in 15 deliveries with the second new ball.

Northamptonshire’s openers Luke Procter and Ricardo Vasconcelos safely negotiated a tricky 10 overs before stumps, finishing on 15 without loss, trailing by 357 runs.

Earlier Ben Sanderson struck in the day’s first over, swinging one back to trap Harry Came lbw without scoring.

Matt Montgomery and Yousaf Bin Naeem added 35 before Guthrie struck twice in three balls. He nipped one back to snare Montgomery lbw before winning another appeal when Bin Naeem shouldered arms. Martin Andersson then smashed Guthrie hard to second slip where Calvin Harrison held a sharp catch.

But while Guthrie troubled Madsen with several well-directed short balls, he and Luis Reece (22) started to rebuild, adding 55 in 15 overs. The Derbyshire captain relieved the pressure with two booming cover drives off Sanderson as the visitors went into lunch on a less precarious 104 for four.

Northamptonshire seized back the momentum immediately after the interval when Conway had Reece adjudged lbw and Sanderson trapped Brooke Guest plumb in front to leave Derbyshire six wickets down.

Madsen, though, was unmoved, driving Conway through extra cover to bring up his half-century and punching Sanderson through cover-point.

Aitchison punched Conway down the ground but the tall Australian quick continued to beat him outside off-stump before he unfurled a fluent on-drive through midwicket off Guthrie as the partnership passed 50.

Madsen, meanwhile, twice cracked Guthrie off the back-foot through cover-point en route to his century before Aitchison danced down the wicket to Harrison to take Derbyshire past 200.

Resuming after tea on 228 for six, Aitchison quickly reached his 50 before smashing a series of crunching cover drives off the seamers and moving into the 90s with a slog-sweep off Harrison over deep midwicket for six.

He drove Harrison down the ground to bring up his century and cut his next ball through cover-point to take Derbyshire past 300. Having increasingly lived by the sword, he perished when he pulled extravagantly off James Sales and was caught at deep-square-leg.

Brett Randell struck a quickfire 36 until the second new ball proved his undoing when Conway yorked him with a full ball.

Madsen smote Sanderson over his head to reach 150 but fell next ball, well caught off the leading edge by George Bartlett at cover.

Muhammad Abbas wildly pulled Conway out of the ground over deep-third before pulling Conway straight to midwicket, leaving Northants with 10 overs to bat.

Derbyshire captain Wayne Madsen said: “We were behind it a little bit early on. They bowled really well at us, and they were getting some assistance from the wicket as well. And so, to be able to get ourselves into the position that we have, the partnership with Aitchy [Ben Aitchison] has really sort of changed the game for us. And especially after the first couple of overs after lunch, I thought we were under the pump, so it was a nice partnership through the rest of the middle session and then into the into the final one.

[On the partnership with Aitchison] “We were having great fun out there actually, and a bit like [our partnership at] Lord’s because there was some movement in the wicket, there were a lot of plays and misses, and we were again having a good laugh out there and enjoying ourselves. It’s nice to have two pretty big partnerships with Aitchy this season.

[On the wicket offering something for the seamers] “It is good news, especially with the bowling attack that we have. If anyone’s going to get something out of it, it’s our three main seamers. So yeah, it’s exciting that it continued to move off the seam pretty much most of the day.

“If you had told me that we’d get somewhere near that at the start of the day, I’d have bitten your hand off for it. And given the fact that where we were, 107 for six, we were under pressure, but to shift the pressure back into their changing room was pretty pleasing.”