North leads the way

Gloucestershire's search for a first LV County Championship win of the season got off to a good start at Cheltenham as 104 from Marcus North and 70 from Hamish Marshall led them to 256 for five against Leicestershire.

A damp ground prevented any play in the opening session, but North and Marshall made up for lost time with an entertaining third-wicket partnership of 167 in 46 overs.

Australian North struck 19 fours in his first century of the season and New Zealander Marshall hit seven fours and a six as he returned to form after a poor run of scores.

Both players were dismissed by James Allenby, while Dillon du Preez removed Will Porterfield and Kadeer Ali early in the innings and David Brown late on to finish the day with 3-40.

Gloucestershire were boosted by the return of captain Jon Lewis from a side strain injury and he won the toss.

Porterfield, back from helping Ireland qualify for next year's Twenty20 World Cup, fell in the second over when he was caught down the leg side by wicketkeeper Paul Nixon.

Marcus North hit a fine 104, sharing a third-wicket stand of 167 with Hamish Marshall

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Kadeer played positively in his pursuit of a first half-century of the campaign, but he fell short of his target when, on 41, he edged du Preez to Boeta Dippenaar at second slip. His 54-ball innings contained seven fours.

That brought North to the middle to join Marshall and the pair encountered few problems on another good College Ground pitch.

North played the more attacking role, and he was particularly effective in pulling and sweeping the spin of Claude Henderson.

He did, though, have a reprieve on 52 when Joshua Cobb failed to hold on to a difficult running chance at mid-off after North had top-edged a pull off du Preez.

North had been dismissed three times in the 90s this summer, but he made no mistake this time as he reached his century from 142 balls in the 60th over.

It was his first hundred for 14 months after a knee injury wrecked his domestic campaign back in Australia last winter.

His fine innings came to an end three overs later when he drove Allenby to mid-off, where Dippenaar took a straightforward catch.

Allenby had more to celebrate in the 69th over when Marshall offered no shot to fall leg before.

And Leicestershire claimed a fifth wicket shortly before stumps when Brown edged du Preez low to second slip, where Dippenaar took his third catch of the day.