Derbyshire put themselves in a great position against Notts

A century from Billy Godleman, his third of the season, has given Derbyshire the opportunity of ending a barren sequence of results against their near-neighbours Nottinghamshire.
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Godleman made 121 as his side reached 363, a first innings lead of 134 on the second day of their Specsavers County Championship match at Trent Bridge.

Without a championship win anywhere since July 2015, Derbyshire also haven’t defeated their local rivals in Nottingham for 15 years.

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Their chances of halting those streaks have been boosted by a solid couple of days, which have left the second division leaders on the back foot. In the final session of the day Notts reached 67 for two, still runs adrift.

Wayne Madsen, who began his innings at the start of play after Shiv Thakor had fallen in the final over of the first day, was able to get his innings up and running by tickling Harry Gurney to the leg side fence for four and then repeated the dose off Luke Fletcher.

Godleman, the visiting skipper, reached his 50 from 80 balls with six fours and his partner brought up the same milestone from 94 deliveries with nine fours.

Brett Hutton eventually made the initial breakthrough just before lunch by pinning Madsen lbw for 56 after a third wicket partnership of 112 with his captain.

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Harry Gurney picked up two wickets for the home side in the hour after lunch, removing Alex Hughes for 12 and Gary Wilson for 13.

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Hughes’ dismissal, an lbw, was eventually confirmed by umpire Patrick Gustard, who then had a long consultation with his colleague Graham Lloyd before sending Wilson on his way.

Godleman’s eleventh boundary, a leg side tickle off Gurney, took him to his 15th first class century from 155 deliveries and propelled his side past Nottinghamshire’s first innings total of 229.

Daryn Smit helped his captain add 58 for the sixth wicket before also falling to a leg before wicket decision, given out against Samit Patel for 32 despite his bat-pad prod deflecting the ball down to the third man fence.

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Jamaican umpire Gustard, umpiring his second first class match during a short stint in England, clearly likes to give himself as much time as possible before making any decisions.

A lengthy deliberation with umpire Lloyd resulted in the end of Godleman’s near six-hour marathon after the pair agreed that an under-edge had carried all the way into the wicketkeeper’s gloves.

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Further scrutiny proceeded the fourth lbw of the day, before he upheld Patel’s appeal against Tony Palladino.

There was almost a fielding catastrophe as Jeevan Mendis hoisted a high swirling catch back over the head of bowler Hutton with Gurney somehow hanging on to the offering, despite Fletcher barging into his team-mate as the catch was claimed.

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Notts were further held up by the last wicket pairing of Tom Taylor and Coner McKerr, who added 34 before Gurney grabbed his third wicket by having Taylor caught at third man.

With the momentum of having gained a first innings lead over Notts, for the first time since that victory in 2002, Derbyshire were further buoyed by knocking over two top order batsmen in the closing 14 overs of the day.

McKerr removed Jake Libby for the second time in the match with Smit taking a smart catch with the gloves, before the ‘keeper followed up with an even better effort to send back Cheteshwar Pujara off Taylor.

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Events at Epsom Downs may have led to the hashtag DerbyDay trending worldwide on social media but as the Derbyshire players returned to the sanctuary of their dressing room they could, quite rightly, agree that it also belonged to them.