Yorkshire CCC looking nailed-on for first County Championship win for 14 months after frenetic first day

A batting day, surely, Mr Masood?

Er, not exactly.

Well, not for the first session at least as Yorkshire dismissed Derbyshire for 111 in 31.4 overs, Matty Fisher taking the last wicket 15 minutes after the lunch interval had been extended with nine wickets down to finish with career-best figures of 5-30. Ben Coad chipped in with 3-28 and Jordan Thompson 2-33, Leus du Plooy, the Derbyshire captain, top-scoring with 28.

After that dismal display by a home side that would have batted first anyway, hoping that their decision to pick two spinners in left-armer Mark Watt and off-spinner Alex Thomson would pay dividends in the game’s fourth innings, Yorkshire ensured that the probability of this game going anywhere near the distance is extremely unlikely.

It might not even last beyond day two, the visitors closing on 272-5, a lead of 161, as they seek their first Championship victory of the season against one of only two others teams winless in Division Two.

Dawid Malan hit an unbeaten 76 and Masood 67, with Yorkshire chasing their first Championship triumph since the opening game of last summer, their winless sequence of 17 fixtures surely about to end at the arboreal setting of Queen’s Park.

After five straight victories in the T20 Blast, which ended a start to that competition of three straight defeats, Yorkshire’s season is finally up-and-running. The confidence gained in that competition clearly rubbed off here, even if four members of the XI have had little or no part in this year’s T20 - Fisher, Coad, Fin Bean and George Hill.

Coad it was who set the tone for a Yorkshire side that showed three changes to the one that lost by one wicket in the club’s last Championship match at Durham in mid-May, Coad replacing Mickey Edwards and Bean and Jonny Tattersall coming in for Saud Shakeel (now departed as a short-term overseas batsman) and Jonny Bairstow, who has a rather important Test match for which to prepare.

Coad trapped Haider Ali, the Derbyshire overseas man, leg-before with a stroke that the Pakistani opener might not wish to see again, an attempted leg-side flick to a straight delivery. When Brooke Guest threw the kitchen sink at Fisher in the next over and edged to Tattersall, his wicketkeeping oppo, Derbyshire were 8-2.

Fisher and Coad were excellent in tandem, Coad bowling the dangerous Wayne Madsen with a lovely delivery that nipped away and took the top of off stump, Fisher following up by squaring-up Harry Came, who edged to Tattersall to leave Derbyshire 15-4.

Matthew Lamb edged Fisher to second slip, where Adam Lyth juggled the ball into the hands of Hill at first, and Derbyshire were in a sorry state at 24-6 inside nine overs when Coad trapped Luis Reece for a duck.

It should have been 26-7 but Tattersall uncharacteristically spilled a regulation opportunity when Thomson edged Coad, Thomson sharing in a seventh-wicket stand of 31 with his captain that was the highest of the innings. Thompson was the man who broke it in an eventful start to his opening over.

After sending down the first ball, Thompson hobbled away after appearing to damage his left foot on landing. Following a brief delay, he fell over completely after delivering his second ball only to strike with the third, trapping du Plooy lbw.

Thompson took a fine reflex catch in his follow-through to leave Derbyshire 76-8, moving sharply to his left after squaring-up Thomson, and Fisher finished things off in his second spell, causing Watt to edge behind before bowling Ben Aitchison.

Derbyshire’s day went from bad to worse, a typically struggling team almost a parody of itself.

The umpires should really have called a halt to the match after just 20 overs of the Yorkshire reply and awarded the points to the visitors, at which point they had already passed the hosts’ first innings score.

Bean was the only casually at that stage, flashing a drive to first slip to end an opening stand of 61, and although Lyth fell moments after the lead had been achieved, edging to the same position after a fine 48, Masood and Malan turned the screw with a third wicket partnership of 88, ended in the sixth over after tea when Masood fell innocuously, patting back a gentle return to Watt as if to say, ‘Here you go, old boy.’

Hill got off the mark with a straight six off Thomson only to perish at deep mid-off attempting another big hit.

Tattersall arrived to add 54 for the fifth wicket with Malan, who was at his best in the sunshine, especially through the offside, the left-hander as upright as a grandfather clock as he drove through the covers.

Despite their two spinners, Derbyshire still could not bowl their allotted overs on time, the clock having ticked past 6pm when a sudden sharp shower ended play with 5.1 overs left.

Tattersall had fallen just before, Reece juggling a return catch, but it felt no more than a consolation wicket.