REPORT | Aitchison leads the way on return to side

Ben Aitchison marked his return to the Derbyshire side with three wickets on the opening day at Old Trafford.

The home side’s players began the day at the bottom of Division Two and with their director of cricket Mark Chilton’s warning that he would make the changes necessary to get their season “back on track” fresh in their minds.

But new skipper Marcus Harris’ batters took advantage of the invitation to have first use of a what looks a good cricket wicket to finish on 250 for five with Wells making 141 and Matty Hurst 51.

The pair put on 121 but a run-rate of 2.6 suggests Lancashire will do well to collect three batting bonus points. Derbyshire, who began the day in second place, might therefore be happy with their efforts to contain Lancashire’s batters. The impressive Ben Aitchison finished the day with three for 51 and the New Zealander, Blair Tickner, took two for 59.

In the morning session, Lancashire recovered from the loss of Keaton Jennings and Josh Bohannon with just 11 runs on the board to reach 67 for two at lunch.

Jennings, who stepped down as four-day captain earlier this week, was caught at second slip by Wayne Madsen off Tickner for two and Bohannon was pouched by wicketkeeper Brooke Guest for three when he tickled an Aitchison delivery down the leg side.

Resuming in the afternoon on 40, Wells took only seven deliveries to reach a 92-ball half-century, his progress assisted by successive boundaries off Aitchison. Indeed, the tempo of the day changed in the first half-hour or so of the session as the third-wicket pair rattled up 47 runs in ten overs.

That progress was immediately halted when Harris fished at the next ball from Tickner and Madsen clung on to a high two-handed catch above his head. The dismissal of Lancashire’s new skipper for 45 ended his 103-run stand with Wells and it greatly slowed the home side’s momentum without seriously disrupting it.

Wells and Hurst had put on 51 for the fourth wicket at tea, by which time the Lancashire opener was 14 short of his century and the Derbyshire attack had done well to restrict the home side to a modest scoring rate.

Three balls after the resumption, Harry Came’s wayward throw presented Wells with the four overthrows that took him into the nineties and he reached his 27th first-class century and his ninth for Lancashire with a cover-driven four off the former Lancashire slow left-armer, Jack Morley. He had faced 212 balls and hit 13 fours.

Hurst reached his fifty off 129 deliveries but was beaten off the pitch and bowled by Aitchison two balls later. That ended his 121-run stand with Wells and four overs later the same bowler produced a vicious lifter to have the former Sussex batsman caught in the gully by Caleb Jewell.

Derbyshire fast bowler Ben Aitchison, who was playing his first Championship match since July 2023, said: “It’s been such a long time and it was just amazing to be out there, regardless of what was happening. I was a bit lucky with the first wicket but I reckon after two years of bad luck with injuries, I deserved that one.

“I’ve felt really good since coming back for training and playing in the second team. It’s good to be able to go out and do what I know I can again.

“It was a full team effort in terms of keeping the runs down and we kept saying that if we kept on doing the right things and earning the right to take wickets, they would come. I think it was a really good day for the team.

“I think the match is about even. We’ll know more when we bat on it but it’s quite a tacky wicket and not the easiest to score on.

“I had a hint yesterday I might be playing but I didn’t know I’d be taking the new ball until this morning. I get nervous before the first ball of any game. If we can get a couple of wickets early tomorrow and get into the tail, we’ll be ahead in this game.”