Durham captain Alex Lees showed his quality on a rain-affected opening day of the Rothesay County Championship match against Derbyshire at the OurCoop County Ground.

Lees batted with patience and concentration in tough conditions to score an unbeaten 53 from 125 balls to take the Division Two leaders to 102 for 2 when bad light ended play at Derby.

He shared a second wicket stand of 61 with Will Rhodes before he was removed for 23 by New Zealand seamer Brett Randell who finished with 1 for 25 from 11 overs.

Ben Aitchison took the other wicket to fall as Derbyshire bowled with discipline but Lees battled through 38 overs to deny them.

Only 16 balls had bowled in the first two sessions after thunderstorms halted play until 4pm but there was a lively start when the match finally resumed.

Ben McKinney pulled Aitchison over wide long on for six but two balls later, went for an expansive drive and was caught behind.

A greenish pitch suggested it was a good toss to win and the gloomy conditions made it more testing for the batsmen.

Randell, who in March became the first bowler in the history of the first-class game to take five wickets in five balls, maintained a good line on his Derbyshire debut, conceding only 11 runs in a six over spell.

Anuj Dal and Nick Potts also commanded respect, meaning Lees and Rhodes had to earn their runs which made for absorbing cricket.

England off-spinner Shoaib Bashir was brought into the attack for a brief two over spell which cost only three runs and Lees and Rhodes faced 133 balls to reach a 50 stand which highlighted the accuracy of the bowling.

The stand was broken when Randell switched to the Racecourse End and moved one away to Rhodes who edged to second slip where Aitchison took a sharp catch.

Only five more overs were possible before the light deteriorated with Lees steering his promotion chasing team through a demanding opening day.