Captain Billy Godleman said he was proud of the attitude and fight shown by his team following the Specsavers County Championship defeat to Northamptonshire.
Derbyshire got their season underway with the four-day fixture at The 3aaa County Ground last week, losing to Northants by three wickets in a tense final over of the match.
Vice Captain, Gary Wilson, top scored on Day One as Derbyshire posted 281 in their first innings. Will Davis took 4-60, restricting the visitors to 307 in their reply, before Godleman and debutante Luis Reece put on a club-record opening stand of 333, setting Northants 326 to win from 65 overs on the final day.
Despite 3-84 from Jeevan Mendis and a further two wickets for Davis, Northants chased down their target with one ball to spare.
Godleman said: “I’m deeply disappointed with the result because I think we made all the running in the game.”
“We were asked to bat first when the wicket was at its most difficult to bat on, predominantly under lights and with overcast conditions.
“But I was really proud of the guys’ attitudes and fight out there. We will learn from this and move onto Canterbury.
“I believe we can win games outright without having to set games up. But to learn to win you have sometimes got to put yourself in positions where you may lose and I do believe we have the character and the quality to win.”
There were a number of positives to take from the opening game, including Reece’s impressive second innings score of 168, only the seventh Derbyshire batsman to score a century against county opposition on debut. There were also highlights in the field, Wilson and the slip cordon taking a number of fine catches.
“The catching from the whole group was fantastic and at times kept us in the game with the ball,” Godleman added.
“Gary Wilson kept brilliantly, took some fantastic catches and when the wicket was at its most difficult scored over 70 runs in the first innings.
“Luis [Reece] showed character and a high level of skill to get through both opening spells was a fantastic effort on debut.”
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