Persistent drizzle brought play to a premature halt on the first day of Nottinghamshire’s LV= county championship match against Derbyshire at Trent Bridge.

After Chris Read had won the toss and inserted the visitors, the day had turned into a frustrating struggle for the Notts skipper and his bowlers.

"The wicket hasn’t done as much as we expected.” Wayne Noon

Derbyshire closed on 245 for two, with three batsmen making half centuries and Shiv Chanderpaul and Wayne Madsen going along nicely before the early interruption.

Understandably, things didn’t go as well as Notts had hoped. “You win the toss and put them in and to have them only two wickets down at tea is not exactly Plan A,” said head coach Wayne Noon.

Noon continued, “Having said that, three of their guys played really well and the wicket hasn’t done as much as we expected.”

Having already chosen to include Riki Wessels at the top of the order in place of Alex Hales, Notts made one further change to their starting eleven by recalling Andre Adams instead of Ajmal Shahzad.

Adams had missed four championship matches after injuring his calf when the sides met at Derby in April.

Chris Read won the toss, inserted the visitors and saw Chesney Hughes fly quickly out of the starting blocks, hitting four boundaries from Harry Gurney’s initial burst.

Hughes and Billy Godleman brought up the 50 partnership in just the 15th over. Their stand had been stretched to 73 before Gurney, back for a second stint from the Pavilion End, should have removed both batsmen.

Hughes, on 48, nicked to the left of Samit Patel at second slip. Although the ball was travelling quickly, the fielder got both hands to it and was disappointed to grass the effort, enabling the batsmen to cross for a single.

From the next delivery Godleman, with a more routine edge, was also put down by the same fielder.

Gurney’s fortunes changed soon after Hughes (59) had reached his fifty (73 balls, 8x4). Attempting a pull, his mistimed shot ballooned up to Adams at mid off.

Adams’ first delivery after lunch created a genuine edge off Godleman’s bat but the ball fell just short of Wessels at first slip.

The frustration was short-lived because the end of that over produced an involuntary push at the ball from Godleman (28) and Read took the simplest of catches.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul got off the mark with a steered four down to third man and maintained the momentum as he worked the bowlers all around the Trent Bridge ground.

His partner, Wayne Madsen, just beat him to his half century (94 balls 8x4) but Chanderpaul’s was the quicker (57 balls 6x4) and coincided with the arrival of the first batting point and the 100 partnership.

The afternoon was dominated by the bat as Madsen and Chanderpaul rotated the strike, reaching 240-2 by tea.

With the floodlights on there was time for one over after the interval before the rains set in, preventing any further play.