Three wickets for Mark Footitt led the Derbyshire fightback as a good final session helped the visitors edge the first day against Gloucestershire at Bristol.
Having chosen to bowl first, Derbyshire dismissed their hosts for 275 in the final hour of the day after taking the final six wickets for just 48 runs inside 24 overs.
Footitt was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 3-72 off his 18 overs, while Tony Palladino (2-41), Alex Hughes (2-34) and Tom Taylor (2-70) all claimed two apiece.
Given six overs to manoeuvre at the end of the day, Derbyshire reached stumps on 24-0, trailing Gloucestershire by 251 going into Day Two.
Footitt said: “If we had bowled as well as we could in the morning session we would have got them out for under 200. But from the situation we found ourselves in at tea, we were pretty satisfied with the day as a whole.”
Graeme Welch’s charges bowled well early on and had their first victim when Chris Dent feathered Palladino through to Harvey Hosein, having struck a brisk 22.
Dent’s opening partner Will Tavare continued to bat well after Dent’s departure and looked set to make a half-century. That was until he played a loose shot to Shiv Thakor (1-44) and was caught in the slips by Wayne Madsen.
Taylor produced a cracking delivery to bowl Peter Handscomb for 17 soon after lunch. Gareth Roderick, however, continued to bat well alongside his new partner Hamish Marshall.
Roderick eventually fell on 76 when he pulled a short ball from Footitt to Hughes at square leg who took a good catch, but Gloucestershire moved to tea in a reasonably good position on 227-4.
The visitors, however, enjoyed an exceptional final session claiming the last six wickets for just 48 runs to dismiss the hosts for 275. Taylor claimed the first wicket just the second ball of the evening session when Geraint Jones attempted a leave and was bowled for 14.
As the new ball approached, Alex Hughes produced a vital spell of bowling in which he trapped Marshall and James Fuller lbw for 41 and six respectively.
Footitt took the new ball for the 83rd over and struck twice in two balls in the 85th; Keiran Noema-Barnett first edged him to second slip for 21 before Liam Norwell was bowled first ball by Derbyshire’s left-arm quick.
The final Gloucestershire wicket fell to Palladino when, on six, Craig Miles attempted to defend but edged to Madsen at first slip who took a regulation catch to complete a good 24-over spell for Welch’s men.
Openers Ben Slater (14 not out) and Billy Godleman (7 not out) were given six overs to bat before the day was out and did so without alarm, ending the day on 24-0.
