Sam Robson makes hay against depleted Leicestershire attack

After the euphoria of winning at Lord's for the first time in 45 years last month, Division Two leaders Leicestershire were made to toil for rewards against the same opponents at the Uptonsteel County Ground, where Middlesex opener Sam Robson posted his first Rothesay County Championship hundred of the season.

Middlesex finished on 336 for 5 after Robson made 133, the 37th first-class century of the 35-year-old batter's career. Earlier, Josh De Caires, still looking for his maiden first-class century after 37 attempts, scored 76 in an opening stand of 173.

Leus Du Plooy, captain in the absence of Toby Roland-Jones, who is sidelined by a gastric bug, was out for 56 in the penultimate over.

In a Leicestershire attack without four of the bowlers that forged the victory at Lord's, seamer Roman Walker took the first three wickets to fall and currently has career-best figures of 3 for 57.

The pitch had a healthy covering of grass but where the sight of a similar surface in April with a Dukes ball in hand would have had a bowler licking his lips, a Kookaburra on a bone dry day in late June is a different proposition.

It made for another of the attritional days that are becoming familiar when the Kookaburra ball is in use - not perhaps the best day to have been chosen for the supporter-led County Cricket Day initiative in which Leicestershire, among others, are participating by offering free admission.

Perhaps mindful of Monday's forecast for still hotter conditions, and how the contest might look on day four, Leicestershire captain Peter Handscomb handed Middlesex the chance to bat first. His side extended their lead by virtue of a draw with Glamorgan last week and may be happy simply not to lose this one. Middlesex, next to bottom, desperately need a win.

They had 119 on the board by lunch, with no losses. Robson and De Caires completed half-centuries with boundaries off Logan Van Beek in the final over before the break, the home attack leaving the field wicketless in the opening session of a match for the first time this season.

Granted, they were lacking Tom Scriven, Rehan Ahmed, Ben Mike and Josh Hull because of injuries, while their leading wicket-taker of the first half of the season, Ian Holland, is playing Major League Cricket for Washington Freedom. Nonetheless it was a disappointing session for the home attack, who failed to create a real chance.

Middlesex added a further 100 between lunch and tea, albeit for the loss of two wickets, when almost all of the meaningful action from the home side's stance took place in the space of five deliveries as Walker, playing only his fifth Championship match in four seasons at Grace Road, dismissed De Caires and Max Holden.

Finding some movement off the seam with a ball 47 overs old, Walker had the former caught behind off an inside edge, and, bowling around the wicket to the left-handed Holden, straightened one enough to pass the outside edge and clip off stump, removing Middlesex's leading scorer for a duck.

The 24-year-old ex-Glamorgan seamer - in the last year of his current contract - picked up his third 10 overs after tea as Robson, whose hundred had come off 185 balls, for once failed to control his shot and was caught at gully.

It was a decent catch by Sol Budinger, yet merely a warm-up for what might be the best of the 25-year-old's career - so far or still to come - five overs later as new batter Ryan Higgins flashed at Ben Green. Now at backward point, Budinger dived for a ball going past him to his left six inches above the ground and somehow caught it with his right hand.

That left Middlesex 271 for 4. They would have been 286 for five had Green, at mid-off, not dropped a dolly chance offered by Ben Geddes off Van Beek on 11, although he at least partially atoned by having Du Plooy caught at second slip when looking well set for day two.