Northamptonshire regained control of their County Championship Division Two match at Derby after a Ross Whiteley counter-attack revived Derbyshire.
Whiteley scored 54 in his first Championship match for nearly three years and dominated a last-wicket stand of 58 with Daryn Dupavillon to carry his team to 362 after Ben Sanderson took 5-76.
Wayne Madsen and Matt Lamb also scored half-centuries for the home side but positive batting after tea strengthened Northants’ position, with Emilio Gay’s unbeaten 89 taking the visitors to 195-2 and a lead of 255.
Derbyshire lost Brooke Guest to the fourth ball of the morning, edging Sanderson to keeper Ricardo Vasconcelos.
Lamb was very fortunate not to be run out in the next over but made the most of that escape by sharing a stand of 82 with Madsen, who swung Rob Keogh for six on his way to a 118-ball 50.
Lamb dished out the same treatment to Liam Patterson-White before completing his 50 from 90 balls but the second new ball sent the innings into decline.
Sanderson got one to straighten to bowl Lamb before Siddharth Kaul found the edge of first Aneurin Donald and then Anuj Dal’s bats.
Madsen was bowled trying to swing Kaul over mid-on and when Sanderson had Zak Chappell and Blair Tickner taken at second slip, Derbyshire looked like conceding a substantial lead.
But Whiteley played impressively, mixing watchful defence with controlled aggression. He pulled Kaul for six, drove Patterson-White over the long-on boundary and farmed the strike astutely while Dupavillon displayed a sound defence.
By the time Luke Procter ducked one in to trap Whiteley lbw, the deficit had been cut to 60 and Derbyshire had momentum going into the evening.
That would have increased had Vasconcelos not been dropped at second slip off Tickner in the second over but by the time he was bowled charging wildly at David Lloyd’s off-spin, the lead was 150.
Patterson-White was caught behind pulling at Chappell but Gay and Karun Nair maintained the tempo in the closing overs.
The pair added 76 from 77 balls to set a platform from where Northants can press on in the morning to give themselves enough time to try and bowl Derbyshire out.
