du Plooy defiant on rain-affected Day One

Leus du Plooy stood firm for Derbyshire, amid difficult conditions on a rain-shortened Day One of the LV= County Championship fixture against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge. 

The batsman made an unbeaten 21 from 108 balls, while rain and bad light repeatedly forced the players from the field in the penultimate red ball fixture of the competition’s first phase.

Derbyshire made 91-5 from the 47 overs that were possible, Matt Critchley making 23 and Luke Fletcher taking two wickets to draw level with Durham’s Chris Rushworth as the competition’s leading wicket-taker with 40 scalps.

On a strip so green it needed three stumps at each end to identify it as the one in use, a Derbyshire side badly hit by injuries and failing form would have anticipated a difficult day after Nottinghamshire won the toss and chose to bowl first. In the circumstances, a scoreboard showing 44 for three at lunch felt like one that could have been worse.

Fletcher soon had Luis Reece pushing at one that found a thin edge, and Brett Hutton trapped Tom Wood in the 12th overs with a full delivery but the home attack bowled too many balls that could be safely left alone in a twice-interrupted opening session and had to wait until the over before lunch to claim another breakthrough.

This time Brooke Guest chased a ball from Lyndon James, giving a second catch to Ben Duckett, deputising with the gloves for Tom Moores who, in common with Joe Clarke, is self-isolating under Covid protocols.

Critchley and du Plooy began to rebuild after lunch before the next band of showers arrived, keeping the players off the field for two hours and 40 minutes. Derbyshire may have wished it had been longer as two more wickets fell in the first 17 balls after the resumption.

Captaining in a first-class match for the first time in the absence of Billy Godleman, Critchley had taken three boundaries off Hutton before the stoppage and and was looking to continue in similar positive vein but perished via a sharp low catch at third slip off 19-year-old Joey Evison, in for the rested Jake Ball, whose first spell of the season comprised four maidens.

Fletcher then picked up his 40th wicket of the season as Harvey Hosein was leg before to his second ball, leaving Derbyshire 76 for five, but only 38 more minutes’ play was possible. The visitors will resume with du Plooy, who was dropped by Duckett on 14, having faced 108 balls for his 21 not out.