Derbyshire v Worcestershire day 1

Derbyshire 360-8 (Critchley 105, du Plooy 98, Hosein 65*, Godleman 50) 

v Worcestershire

After losing the toss and being asked to bat, Derbyshire will be very happy with their position at the end of the first day.

Thanks to a fine century from Matt Critchley, a classy 98 from Leus du Plooy and an unbeaten 65 from Harvey Hosein, we reached 360-8 by the close of play.

Luis Reece went in the first over, playing across the line but to my eyes outside off stump. It seemed a harsh decision but Billy Godleman dug in and with Leus du Plooy batting beautifully they went into lunch with only one wicket down.

Billy was caught behind soon after making fifty and Madsen didn't last long, but Critchley must be seeing it like a football and played quite beautifully. A couple of on drives left me purring and he looks a batsman of real class. He was well assisted by Harvey Hosein (I could have copy and pasted that from the Edgbaston report) and they took the score past 300 with a stand that was part grit, part luck (Hosein was dropped twice) and at times very stylish.

Critchley was given lbw in the final session, which triggered a collapse of four wickets in four overs, but the close came with Derbyshire in a decent position on a wicket that offered something  for bowlers, all day. There was a bbit of carry in it too, which was pleasing to see. 

It will be interesting to see how we bowl on it tomorrow. Alzarri Joseph bowled quickly for the visitors, but often way too short and when he pitched it up, like Pennington, Barnard and Leach, he was a handful.

Let's hope we don't make the same mistake when we are bowling tomorrow.