Despite four wickets from Wayne White, Essex built on their first day advantage with a dominant performance with the bat on Day Two at Chelmsford.
The hosts resumed on 108-0, just 40 runs behind Derbyshire, and they were impressive throughout the day with Alastair Cook (80), Nick Browne (60), Ravi Bopara (57), Jesse Ryder (52) and James Foster (51*) all making half-centuries.
White (4-102) was the pick of the Derbyshire attack but Essex were in the ascendancy and closed Day Two on 449-8 with a lead of 301 runs.
Paceman Tony Palladino said: “We knew it was going to be tough a today but said we would give it our best all day and that’s what we did.
“We kept our energy up and our noise levels and we felt that if we did that, we would get some rewards and we did with eight wickets. Hopefully, we’ll bat as well as we can in the remainder of the game and make a game of it.”
Opening batsman Nick Browne, who resumed on his overnight score of 47, reached his half-century in the first over of the day as Essex set about overhauling Derbyshire’s first innings total of 148.
Essex, who were making steady yet effective progress on the second morning, lost their first wicket with the score on 134, as Browne was lbw for a well-made 60 off the bowling of White.
England Captain Cook was seemingly untroubled as he typically kept the scoreboard ticking over without taking any major risks in his innings, but he misjudged a Wes Durston delivery when on 80 and England’s record Test run-scorer was bowled.
Tom Westley and Ravi Bopara put on a useful partnership of 62 either side of lunch, before White clean bowled Westley for 43 to leave the hosts 230-3.
Bopara reached his half-century from 103 balls as a partnership between himself and New Zealand batsman Jesse Ryder passed fifty in the afternoon session despite some tight bowling with the new ball from Derbyshire’s bowling attack.
Bopara made a rare mistake 15 minutes before tea as he was caught at slip by Durston for 57 as White grabbed his third wicket.
Ryan Ten Doeschate was bowled by Durston for 20 at the start of the evening session, before Ryder became the fourth Essex batsman to reach his half-century in the innings shortly after.
Ryder was dismissed two runs later, however, as he was bowled by a Chesney Hughes delivery to leave Essex on 345-6.
Graham Napier played positively in his innings of 35 to help Essex continue their dominance, before he became White’s fourth wicket as he offered Shiv Thakor a simple catch.
Matt Salisbury was bowled by Tony Palladino for nine but James Foster brought up a fine half-century, Essex’s fifth of the innings, just before stumps as Essex rounded off a fine day by closing on 449-8 with a lead of 301 runs.
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Derbyshire are back in home NatWest T20 Blast action on Thursday 18 June when they welcome Leicestershire Foxes to The 3aaa County Ground.
