David Lloyd finds form as Derbyshire stand firm

Derbyshire opener David Lloyd emerged from a poor start to the season before Middlesex fought back on the opening day of the Rothesay County Championship Division Two match at Derby.

Lloyd made 93 from 197 balls, his highest innings since September 2022, and shared a second-wicket stand of 156 with Harry Came who scored 73 after the hosts had been put in to bat.

Although the in-form Caleb Jewell was out for a duck, there was little in the pitch for the Middlesex bowlers until late in the day when the second new ball did the trick. Toby Roland-Jones bowled Wayne Madsen for 49 to finish with figures of 2 for 47 from 20 overs as Derbyshire closed on 267 for 5.

Lloyd came into the game under pressure to deliver after a run of low scores in his first six innings of the season.

That would have increased after his opening partner Jewell registered a rare failure when he fell to Roland-Jones in the third over of an overcast morning. The Tasmanian had scored five half-centuries in the first three matches but was still looking for his first run when he edged Roland-Jones low to second slip.

Perhaps the overhead conditions and a green-tinged pitch had persuaded Middlesex to bowl first but their bowlers found there was not much to encourage them.

Although the bowling was disciplined, there was hardly any seam movement or swing to trouble Lloyd and Came who showed good judgement to bat through to lunch. They added 85 from 182 balls which showed how hard they had to work for the runs and it got no easier after the interval.

In the first 10 overs of the afternoon session, there were only seven scoring shots and three of those were edges to the vacant third man boundary. The pair faced 73 dot balls in the first hour until Lloyd relieved some of the tension by cutting and pulling Ryan Higgins for two fours.

Lloyd passed his previous best score for Derbyshire of 73 but had an escape when he edged Zahar Gohar just past Higgins who should have got a hand to it.

A century looked there for the taking until he was drawn into pulling a shot ball from Higgins to long leg where Blake Cullen dived forward to take the catch.

Lloyd's body language showed that he had thrown away a great opportunity and Came also lost patience after tea when he came down the pitch to Gohar but failed to clear deep mid-off where Stephen Eskinazi took a good catch above his head.

Middlesex took the second new ball as soon as it became available and the breakthrough they badly needed arrived when Dane Paterson beat Brooke Guest's defensive push.

With no addition to the total, Roland-Jones got the big wicket of Madsen who was bowled by one that moved away to shave the off stump which brought his average for the season down below 88.