Smith and Habib put Leicestershire in charge against Kent

Centuries from Ben Smith and Aftab Habib put Leicestershire in a strong position against Kent by the close of the first day of their CricInfo Championship match at Grace Road.

Smith made 111 and Habib a stylish 153 to steer the home side to a total of 378 for seven and four batting bonus points.

And Leicestershire captain Vince Wells would feel it could have been even better, because four of the side's frontline batsmen - including himself - failed to reach double figures.

Iain Sutcliffe was out for four, Darren Maddy and Pakistan Test star Shahid Afridi both fell for five and Wells was dismissed for one.

So it was left to Smith and Habib to produce the sort of knocks needed on a docile pitch. Smith is certainly the man in form at the moment, and England's selectors could do worse than consider him for the Third Test against Australia at Trent Bridge next week.

This was Smith's third successive CricInfo Championship century and his fourth in the last five games, and he now totals 835 runs at an average of 46.

He and Habib shared a third-wicket stand of 151 after Martin Saggers had removed openers Iain Sutcliffe and Trevor Ward with only 47 scored.

Smith reached his century off 164 balls with 16 fours and struck two more before finally popping up a return catch superbly taken by Matthew Walker.

Following his departure Habib took centre stage with some fluent strokeplay which deservedly brought him his first century of the summer. It came in four hours and included 15 fours and a six.

He was finally dismissed for 153 by teenage debutant off-spinner James Tredwell, who had travelled to Leicester by train from Hove after being called up from the England Under-19 squad to replace the injured Min Patel. Tredwell did not arrive until half an hour before the tea interval and then clean bowled Habib with the third ball of his third over.

But there was no relief for Kent with Neil Burns hitting an unbeaten half-century and James Ormond a quickfire 15 by the close.