TWENTY wickets fell on the opening day of Worcestershire’s Specsavers County Championship Division Two match with Derbyshire at Kidderminster.

The visitors opted to bat and were dismissed for 108 in 44.2 overs with County captain Joe Leach (3-33) and Charlie Morris (4-26) inflicting most of the damage.

The home side then also struggled for runs and were bowled out for 113 in 39.5 overs with Luis Reece (4-30) their chief destroyer.

Derbyshire openers Billy Godleman and Reece then survived seven overs in reaching 19-0 by the close in their second innings.

There was some swing and seam movement although not excessive and both sets of bowlers asked plenty of questions.

But there were few demons in the wicket to suggest there would be such dominance of ball over bat.

Only Reece batted for a substantial amount of time as a constant procession of batsmen made their way to and from the pavilion.

Home paceman Dillon Pennington, in his first appearance of the season after injury, struck the first blow when Billy Godleman (8) drove hard and Callum Ferguson held on at third slip.

Wayne Madsen (11) was trapped lbw by Ed Barnard and Tom Lace (1) nicked Morris through to wicketkeeper Ben Cox to leave Derbyshire on 33-3 in the 18th over.

Reece and Leus du Plooy tried to repair the innings and battled through to lunch without being parted.

But 11 wickets fell for 91 runs during the afternoon session.

Leach picked up three wickets in seven balls immediately after the resumption to account for Reece (31) at first slip, Harvey Hosein (0) lbw and Matt Critchley (0) at second slip.

Then Morris turned the screw to take his wicket tally in the Championship this season to 30.

Du Plooy (14) and Anuj Dal (0) were pouched at first and second slip respectively and Cox caught Fynn Hudson-Prentice (31) spectacularly also off Morris.

Barnard wrapped up the innings when Ravi Rampaul (4) edged to first slip.

When the hosts launched their reply, batting was also challenge and Josh Dell (0) was caught behind in Rampaul’s first over.

Ferguson (13) nicked a ball of extra bounce to second slip and Daryl Mitchell (13) was lbw to Reece.

It became 44-4 shortly before tea when Riki Wessels (13) also went lbw to Hudson-Prentice.

The same trend continued during the final session as Ross Whiteley (5) was caught behind off an an away swinger from Reece who then had Cox (4) lbw.

Reece enjoyed a fourth success as Barnard (17) drove to point after Rampaul had undone Brett D’Oliveira (5) to leave the County on 77-8.

Leach (14) and Pennington, who top-scored with 18, put together the best stand of the inning of 33 before Hudson-Prentice (3-27) cleaned up proceedings.