Nottinghamshire fought back strongly on a rain-interrupted second day of their LV= county championship match against Derbyshire at Trent Bridge.
Only 16.5 overs were possible, during which time Notts picked up four wickets, including the prize scalp of Shivnarine Chanderpaul, with the visitors moving on to 306-6.
The West Indian fell to Andre Adams for 87, who also claimed the wicket of Wayne Madsen for 74.
"My job was to try and ruffle their feathers, bang a few in if necessary." Harry Gurney
Adams has figures of 3-57, whilst Harry Gurney has taken 3 for 74.
Gurney admitted the bowling performance had been much more disciplined than it had been on the first day.
“We went out this morning with a lot more intent and managed to pick up the wickets by landing more balls in good areas than we had on the first day," he said.
“My job was to try and ruffle their feathers, bang a few in if necessary – but that was based on the assumption that the conditions would be the same. We quickly assessed that that wasn’t the case and we should go back to our normal line and lengths and the wickets followed.
“It’s always nice to get wickets yourself but I enjoyed bowling in tandem with Andre. He did the hard work, getting rid of the two not out batsmen and that made it easier for me.”
Gurney is still to take a five wicket haul for Nottinghamshire but he’s eyeing up the prospect of doing it during this Derbyshire innings.
“The new ball is due when we get back out there, so it will be great if I can knock over a couple and get a five-fer for Notts.”
Resuming from their first day position of 245-2 Derbyshire’s captain and overseas player began again together in gloomy conditions.
Madsen punched Adams’ first delivery of the day through mid on for four but only two more balls were bowled before a heavy shower suddenly swept across the ground.
Only around sixteen minutes were lost but the restart saw the visitors bring up their second batting point as Harry Gurney went for four no-balls and then four byes in the same over.
After a stand of 165 between Chanderpaul and Madsen (74), Notts were indebted to Adams for making the breakthrough.
A nip-backer struck Madsen on the pads and umpire Jeff Evans deliberated before sending the Derbyshire captain on his way.
Adams, showing no signs of a reaction to his lengthy injury lay-off, was also troubling Chanderpaul, who was hurried into a couple of shots and seemed out-of-sorts after looking so fluent on the first day.
The prize scalp belonged to Adams, who induced the great West Indian to inside-edge the ball back on to his stumps for 87.
The New Zealander, almost without exception, prefers to bowl around the wicket to left-handers yet had repeated his championship-winning 2010 dismissal of Chanderpaul by staying over the wicket to him.
Ben Slater nearly fell first ball. Pushing Adams to James Taylor at point, he appeared short of his ground as the under-arm throw narrowly missed its target.
Gurney, bowling with great pace, then picked up wickets in consecutive overs, as Wes Durston (15) chopped on to his middle stump and Slater (2) drove uppishly to Paul Franks at mid on.
Notts had picked up three wickets for 11 runs in just fourteen deliveries but any further progress was halted by another shower, which brought an early lunch at 300 for six.
Only five further deliveries were possible before the heaviest of thunderstorms hit Trent Bridge, preventing the possibility of any further play.