Patel hundred props up Leicestershire in face of Conway five-for

An impressive century from opener Rishi Patel rescued Division Two leaders Leicestershire on the opening day of their Rothesay County Championship against Northamptonshire.

In conditions that largely favoured the bowling side, Patel's 105 from 189 balls was key as Leicestershire recovered from 119 for 5 to total 304 at the Uptonsteel County Ground.

Australian paceman Harry Conway took 5 for 68 on his Northamptonshire debut, with veteran county stalwart Ben Sanderson finishing with 3 for 62 on his first appearance of the season after injury. Their side are six without loss after facing five overs at the close.

Patel hit 14 fours and a six in a performance that combined flair with patience and there were useful contributions from Leicestershire's lower order, led by Ben Green's 39, after Northamptonshire skipper Luke Procter had chosen to bowl first.

That decision had looked an easy one to make with a green pitch and warm, slightly hazy conditions at the start of play, but it took until the second hour for his bowlers to make inroads.

Patel and Sol Budinger had given their side a flying start, putting on 58 in 15 overs, but the latter was undone on 30 by a fine delivery from Procter that squared him up and flew off the shoulder to second slip.

Sanderson, back in action after a knee injury, made his presence felt by taking a wicket with the first ball of his second spell and following it quickly with another. Rehan Ahmed tickled one behind down the leg side to fall for a second consecutive duck before Lewis Hill, who had an escape on nought in the previous Sanderson over, perished via a thin outside edge.

Leicestershire had lost three wickets in the space of five overs and after Patel, who has already been out with a dislocated thumb this season, needed treatment for a blow on the same hand, they were relieved to reach lunch with no more damage at 95 for 3.

Patel recovered to complete his first fifty of the season but another double setback for his team soon followed as Conway, in the first of four scheduled Championship appearances, removed fellow Australian Peter Handscomb and allrounder Ian Holland in his first spell of the afternoon.

Handscomb was leg before, stepping across his stumps, while Holland was caught by a leaping Lewis McManus, the ball glancing off his raised bat as he tried to let it go past the stumps.

Patel and Ben Cox then mounted a fightback for Leicestershire, runs flowing for a while. That changed as Conway returned before tea, producing his best spell of the day and the end of a sixth-wicket partnership that added 74 when Cox gave the simplest of return catches, the ball looping up off a leading edge.

Conway troubled Patel, too, but not enough to deny him what was an excellent hundred in the circumstances, the Leicestershire opener moving closer with a six driven down the ground off Calvin Harrison, the legspinner on loan from Nottinghamshire, before reaching three figures with a drive to the extra-cover boundary off the same bowler.

Patel was dismissed three balls after tea - leg before to the medium pace of James Sales, an infrequent bowler in first-class cricket these days, whose appeal after the ball had beaten the batter's inside edge prompted umpire Sue Redfern, after some deliberation, to raise the finger.

It was a breakthrough that might have hastened a rapid end to the innings but Leicestershire bat deep Green and Logan van Beek added another 60 runs before Sanderson claimed the eighth wicket with the second new ball via a stunning catch at backward point as the latter departed.

Green followed Rehan earlier in being strangled down the leg side and Josh Hull was trapped on the crease as Conway wrapped things up with his fourth and fifth wickets.