County Championship: Footitt burst gives Derbyshire the edge

Mark Footitt was the County Championship's leading wicket taker last season with 82 victims

Left-arm paceman Mark Footitt helped spark a Gloucestershire collapse from 227-4 to 271 all out to give Derbyshire the initiative at Bristol.

The hosts were well placed as Gareth Roderick (76) and Hamish Marshall (41) batted with a degree of comfort.

But six wickets fell for 48 runs after the tea interval, as Footitt (3-72) almost claimed a hat-trick and was well supported by Alex Hughes (2-34).

Derbyshire reached 24-0 in the day's final six overs with few problems.

Gloucestershire may rue the fact that all of their top seven reached double figures, including opener Will Tavare (48) and Roderick, who batted for over three hours and hit 11 fours, but none went on to post a three-figure score.

The situation at the close vindicated Derbyshire's decision to put the home side in to bat in grey, early conditions, with Tony Palladino (2-41) and Tom Taylor (2-70) also chipping in wickets for the visitors.

Gloucestershire batsman Gareth Roderick:

"It was a tough day's graft for us out there, but hopefully a good one because the pitch is still doing a bit for the bowlers when they put it in the right place.

"I'm pleased with my start to the season, but also a bit frustrated at not turning my half-centuries into really meaningful scores.

"The shot I got out to was right out of the middle of the bat, but you have to avoid the fielders."

Derbyshire paceman Mark Footitt:

"If we had bowled as well as we could in the morning session we would have got them out for under 200.

"But from the situation we found ourselves in at tea, we were pretty satisfied with the day as a whole."