The first day of Derbyshire vs Middlesex at Derby began with
Middlesex winning the toss and fielded, and began with a hostile opening
barrage from Murtagh and Roland-Jones but with no success, until Gareth
Berg got Chesney Hughes to hole out to Roland-Jones for 16, carrying on
his struggles this season, 37-1. The pace of the innings started to
pick up once Wayne Madsen arrived, he carried on his batting form by
picking off some early runs as Middlesex began to drift a touch. Lunch came with Madsen on a run a ball 25, and the fifty partnership between Ben Slater and Madsen came up shortly after.
Runs came slowly but steadily, as the pair passed 100 and
Slater completed 50 from 128 balls before edging behind off James Harris
shortly after, 118-2. Shiv Chanderpaul came and went, caught at short
leg by Same Robson off Ollie Rayner for 2. Madsen reached his own fifty
in the next over from 95 balls. Middlesex then let the game drift a bit,
allowing Johnson and Madsen to put up 50, until Johnson tried to hammer
Adam Voges's spin, and was caught at square leg for 33, 179-4. But the
crash of wickets wouldn't come as Alex Hughes and Madsen brought up the
200 and progressed to the new ball with the score 226-4. Madsen went
into the 90s, but lost Hughes, trapped LBW by Murtagh for 33. Madsen was
soon celebrating, another four off Murtagh bringing up his hundred, and
the first player to score 1000 championship runs on the way to it. Tom
Poynton fell in the same over, but Madsen lasted out the final six
overs, Derbyshire having the slightly better of the day, 279-6.
