GRACE ROAD

(Day one of four: Derbyshire won toss)

Derbyshire 194 (D Redfern 47; G Kruger five for 51). Leicestershire 31 for one.

Lunch

A bold decision to bat first by Derbyshire on a pitch that is offering plenty of help to Leicestershire's seam bowlers, as you would expect in late September.

Garnett Kruger has exploited the conditions well, moving the ball off the seam to have Dominic Telo and Greg Smith caught at slip. Another ball from Kruger, which pitched outside leg and missed off, must have done further damage to the watching batsmen's confidence.

Dan Redfern, the left-hander, has been the one Derbyshire batsman to offer stout resistance, driving neatly through cover to make an unbeaten 47. Much depends on him after lunch.

Tea

After his sterling efforts before lunch, Redfern lasted only three balls in the afternoon before he was leg-before to Garnett Kruger, one of five wickets for the South African pace bowler.

Redfern apart, no other Derbyshire batsman managed to reach thirty on a pitch that has offered seam and bounce. Kruger’s last wicket, when he bowled Jake Needham, even kept low in difficult conditions for the batters. Having been bowled out just before tea in 63.5 overs, Derbyshire must now hope that their bowlers can make as much use of the conditions.

Close

Just to prove that the pitch will not only favour the home attack, Matt Boyce, the Leicestershire opening batsman, was dismissed before the close by a ball from Wayne White that spat at him. Already committed to the shot, Boyce could only fend to slip.

Bad light then intervened to curtail proceedings as Leicestershire look to build a first-innings lead and take the outside chance of clambering up the table from their present position, second from bottom.

Unless the weather intervenes, a positive result is likely on this sporting pitch.