Lord's for the first day of Middlesex vs Derbyshire, which started an hour late because of the floodlight CB40 the night before. Steve Finn was released by England and was on his way down so Steve Crook was to be substitute until he arrived, although he couldn't bowl or bat because the game had started after the Test at Trent Bridge (useless ECB and their regulations...). Derbyshire won the toss and batted and Martin Guptill got an unplayable delivery first ball from Tim Murtagh which he poked to Jamie Dalrymple at slip, 0-1. Murtagh then struck in his next over, having Wayne Madsen caught by Malan for a duck and followed it up with his third wicket in 16 balls for 5 runs by having Chesney Hughes waft a wide ball to point were Sam Robson took the catch. Derby 14-3 and in deep trouble which Wes Durston and Greg Smith hit them out of. Because Crook couldn't bowl, there were only two front-line seamers so Dexter and Dalrymple were bowling after the first hour and both Smith and Durston reached quick fifties (off 48 and 75 balls) with the newish ball not spinning Durston hitting Tom Smith for a flat six to the Grand Stand boundary.
127-3 and a murmur went up amongst the crowd followed by a cheer as Steve Finn ran onto the field at 1:45 and was bowling the next over from the pavilion end where Durston was beaten by pace third ball to fall lbw for 61 and to swing the momentum back to Middlesex at lunch with 131-4.
Smith went straight after lunch for 57 to give Murtagh his 4th wicket and Luke Sutton was bowled by Finn to leave Derby 165-6, still in danger of not reaching 200. Ross Whiteley has been in good form of late in his first full season in the team and he saved his side with a fifty which included sixes off Murtagh and a huge hit off Dalrymple which lodged in the roofing to the right of the pavilion.
A missed stumping by Simpson of Jon Clare off Dalrymple wasn't to costly as Tom Smith then had Clare caught at slip by Dexter (22) and next over Gronewald was caught behind by Simpson and the over after Palladino caught by Newman at short leg for 1. 220-6 to 224-9 and 250 looked beyond them but Mark Turner hit 20 not out and aided Whiteley reaching 50 (off 97) before Whiteley smacked Finn to Murtagh to leave them 252 all out, a total that was probably below par.
This left Middlesex with 28 overs to bat and Newman and Robson did so easily. They rocked along at four an over and although they were lucky with a couple of edges both played well against an attack that struggled to assert itself. Newman reached 50 off 73 balls to be 51 not out at close and Robson was 48 not out with Middlesex closing 105-0 only 147 behind Derbyshire.
