Tony Palladino claimed three wickets and Lancashire’s Alviro Petersen hit a debut century on an even first day at The 3aaa County Ground.
Derbyshire started brightly with the ball and two early wickets from Palladino, with one apiece for Mark Footitt and Shiv Thakor, helped reduce the visitors to 55-4.
A fine century from Petersen, as well as useful contributions from Tom Smith, Alex Davies and Peter Siddle, helped Lancashire recover in the afternoon sunshine.
But two wickets just before the close from Palladino and Thakor halted Lancashire’s progress, and gave Derbyshire some momentum to take into Day Two.
The decision to field first looked a good one as Lancashire were reduced to 5-2 early on. Both openers fell cheaply as Palladino had Paul Horton (5) caught behind by Harvey Hosein, while Footitt clean bowled Luis Reece without scoring.
The experience of duo Alviro Petersen and Ashwell Prince helped Lancashire recover as the score passed fifty.
But Derbyshire finished the opening session strongly with Thakor bowling Prince for 21, before Palladino trapped Croft for one, as the players took lunch with the score at 61-4.
Lancashire fought back after lunch as Petersen, making his Lancashire debut, brought up his century from 149 balls. He was accompanied at the other end by Smith, as the pair frustrated Derbyshire’ bowlers for much of the afternoon.
Alex Hughes got the breakthrough shortly before tea as he bowled Smith for 38, to break a partnership of 135, with Lancashire ending the session on 192-5.
Footitt grabbed his second wicket of the day shortly after the break, and it was the key wicket of Petersen, as the left-arm seamer grabbed his 200th first-class career scalp with Martin Guptill taking a routine catch a square-leg.
Davies and Siddle put on a useful partnership of 86 to take the total to 292-6, with a ten-minute break for bad light not proving a problem for the pair.
But Palladino removed Siddle for 46 in the penultimate over, and Thakor trapped Davies lbw for 40 with the final ball of the day to ensure Derbyshire went off the field in high spirits.
Palladino finished the day with figures of 3-70, Thakor took 2-28, while Footitt claimed 2-63. Alex Hughes grabbed the other wicket on an entertaining first day of the LV= County Championship season.
