Lancashire's Jimmy Anderson and Graham Onions put Derbyshire to the sword

Jimmy Anderson gave another impressive demonstration of his craft with a five-wicket haul as Division Two leaders Lancashire took control on a rain-shortened opening day at Derbyshire.

The England fast bowler returned the remarkable figures of 5-18 in 17 overs, his most economical in county cricket, while Graham Onions claimed 3-19 in 14 to give Lancashire maximum batting points.

Leus du Plooy top-scored with an unbeaten 38 out of Derbyshire’s 153 and in reply, the visitors lost Keaton Jennings for a duck to close on 8-1.

The start at Derby was delayed by overnight rain which seeped under the covers, but when play began at 2.30pm Anderson and Onions got down to business after an uncontested toss.

It was not only the clatter of wickets that embarrassed Derbyshire, who handed in the wrong team which had to be changed after the game had started, with Sam Connors making his championship debut.

By the time the 20-year-old walked out to bat five overs after tea, Derbyshire were in disarray.

Anderson bowled 10 overs unchanged from the City End, although it was Onions who did the early damage as loose drives accounted for Billy Godleman and Wayne Madsen before Tom Lace played across the line.

Anderson, who had not played a first-class game at Derby for 14 years, was finally rewarded when Luis Reece could only edge one into his stumps and Harvey Hosein’s lbw made it 24-5.

Batting looked a good deal easier once Anderson and Onions gave way to Josh Bohannon and Saqib Mahmood, which allowed Alex Hughes and Matt Critchley to counter-attack.

They added 62 but the return of Anderson after tea sparked another collapse, with Critchley caught behind off the fifth ball after the interval.

Hughes was defeated by some late movement in Anderson’s next over and Logan van Beek was lbw three balls later.

Du Plooy and Connors were helped by a couple of dropped catches in the slips to add 48 in 16 overs until Connors skied a pull at Bohannon to deep mid-wicket.

Ravi Rampaul clubbed Liam Livingstone for six before he spooned Mahmood to cover, leaving Lancashire to negotiate five overs but Jennings faced only 10 balls before he was lbw to Reece.

Anderson said: “I think we did well to get out there and play to be honest. It was very wet, so to get on the field was a positive thing and once we got out there it wasn’t too bad underfoot.

“I thought we bowled really well to start with and at 24-5 maybe we could have pressed home that advantage more than we did, although I thought they played pretty well.

“It did a bit early on, with a bit of moisture in the pitch, and it got flatter as the day went on, so we are pretty happy with our day’s work.”