IF ever there was a time for a Derbyshire captain to toss the coin into the air and offer an extra special prayer for it to come down his way, this was it.

Whichever power Chris Rogers called upon, it was to no avail and Derbyshire were sentenced to a day of hard labour to begin their LV County Championship match against Surrey at Whitgift School.

Having supplied just over half a total of 568 runs in 80 overs of a Pro40 League game a day earlier, Derbyshire knew what a good batting wicket this was likely to be and it was no surprise when Surrey opted to have first go on it.

On a stiflingly hot day, it was crucial that Derbyshire fed on whatever scraps came their way but their wastefulness in the field made this a particularly frustrating day.

Surrey reached the close on 303-3, with Michael Brown having made 120 and Mark Ramprakash 80, but that does not tell the full story.

There was plenty of movement through the air for the bowlers with the new ball and it would have required several people's fingers and toes to keep tally of the number of times the edge was beaten.

Nantie Hayward was especially dangerous early on and gave Jon Batty a bit of a working over. Having clattered him on the helmet, the South African found the edge of the bat later in the 10th over but Wayne Madsen dropped a simple chance at second slip.

Batty was 22 at the time and when he had moved on to 33, he edged again, this time off Tim Groenewald, and the hapless Madsen, perhaps over-eager to make amends, threw himself to his left and got two hands to a head-high chance in front of second slip but again it went to ground.

Clearly, it was not to be Derbyshire's morning but they did get a wicket five overs after lunch when Batty did the decent thing and top-edged a cut at Hayward which was very well caught at deep backward point by Greg Smith.

It was not quite the breakthrough they hoped it would be, however.

Ramprakash, fresh from his double century on an Oval featherbed earlier this week, was left pushing and groping at Graham Wagg's post-lunch spell but there was no edge.

The irritation levels increased when Wavell Hinds had what appeared a very good case for lbw against Brown and he could not hide his disappointment that umpire Tim Robinson didn't share his enthusiasm.

It earned Hinds a call to the umpires' changing room at tea for a quiet word.

With Brown pushing beyond his century and Ramprakash closing in on his, the second new ball brought a small burst of relief for Derbyshire.

With the second over of the new ball, Hayward coaxed a leading edge from Brown and the catch was exceptionally gratefully clutched by Madsen at cover.

Two balls later, Groenewald produced a beauty to leave Ramprakash and clip his off stump. If you do that to him on 80, you know you have bowled a decent ball.

That was 275-3 and while it was the last of the cheer, at least it was something.

Derbyshire will have luckier days on a cricket field but those early missed chances tempered the sympathy.