Guest, du Plooy hit half-centuries on Day One

Half-centuries by Brooke Guest and Leus du Plooy helped Derbyshire total 260 all out on the opening day of their LV= County Championship match against Nottinghamshire.

After being asked to bat first on a heavily green-tinged pitch, and facing a trio of international fast bowlers in Stuart Broad, James Pattinson and Dane Paterson, Derbyshire will feel they could have done much worse, particularly after leading scorer Shan Masood – who still hopes to become the first player since Graeme Hick in 1988 to aggregate 1,000 first-class runs before the end of May – suffered a rare failure.

Australian former Test bowler Pattinson (2-85), his dander up after twice being hooked for six, bowled with real pace and there was plenty of aggression from Broad (2-36) in the last of his three Championship appearances before his Test recall against New Zealand next month.

On the down side for Derbyshire, they are without three senior bowlers with Suranga Lakmal, Anuj Dal and Ryan Sidebottom all injured. Lakmal had been working through an elbow issue, which worsened, and as such, he misses the game against Nottinghamshire. Dal slipped on a wet practice pitch in the warm-up and twisted his ankle. Both will be reviewed by the Medical Team moving forward.

Nottinghamshire began their reply with 22 without loss from three overs, all the runs off the bat being scored by Ben Slater (18).

Pakistan Test opener Masood, whose seven previous innings included three centuries, two of them doubles, and only one score under 62, this time fell on 18, caught behind pushing at a ball from Pattinson that found a thin edge.

His dismissal leaves him on 844 runs for the season, still with an outside chance to make history as the earliest to reach the magical 1,000 in May, although he has only the second innings of this match in which to do it because the rest of the month is given over to the Vitality Blast.

Were he to make 156 or higher he would better Sir Donald Bradman’s 1938 achievement of reaching the milestone by 27 May.

After Masood’s dismissal, Derbyshire slipped to 41 for three when Paterson removed Billy Godleman and Wayne Madsen with consecutive balls.

Godleman was caught at third slip before Madsen nibbled at one that left him late to be caught behind, yet new man Du Plooy helped Guest steer a path to 89 for three at lunch, the latter miscueing Pattinson for six over the short boundary on the Bridgford Road side.

After the interval, Guest completed a 68-ball half-century but was not able to build on it, losing his middle stump to a quick ball from Broad that deflected off his bottom hand.

After lunch, Du Plooy followed guest in losing his wicket soon after passing fifty, leg before playing back to a ball from Steven Mullaney, but Derbyshire added 102 runs in the session.

Alex Hughes, a late call-up after Dal turned his ankle warming up on the outfield, joined Guest in hooking Pattinson for six, off a no-ball to boot, having been dropped on six off Mullaney.

Slater took a stunning boundary catch to deny former Derbyshire teammate Luis Reece a half-century, before being given a rare opportunity to bowl his off-spin and claiming his maiden Championship wicket with his first ball as Tom Moores stumped Alex Thomson.

After the second new ball was taken, Hughes became a second victim for Broad when he was lbw to a full delivery but he and debutant Liam Hurt – the fast bowler on loan from Lancashire – had added 27 to secure a second batting point. Paterson and spinner Liam Patterson-White picked up the last two wickets.

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