County Championship: Sam Evans ton puts Leics on top against Surrey at The Oval

Leicestershire openers Sam Evans and Hassan Azad shared a century opening stand

Leicestershire's batsmen set a good platform against Surrey on the opening day of their County Championship game interrupted by bad light and rain.

Openers Sam Evans (100 not out) and Hassan Azad (55) put on 130 for the first wicket before Azad was caught at deep fine leg off Jamie Overton.

Jordan Clark then removed Harry Dearden and Colin Ackermann cheaply.

But Evans made his second first-class century just before stumps to help the visitors close on 215-3.

• Relive day one of the County Championship

It was an innings of excellent patience from the 23-year-old under gloomy skies for much of the afternoon as he reached his hundred off 225 balls.

The century was also his first for Leicestershire, his other having come for Loughborough University in 2017.

Surrey had handed a debut to West Indies paceman Kemar Roach, with the county deciding to rest England left-armer Reece Topley after he took six wickets in their heavy defeat by Gloucestershire.

But Roach bowled 18 overs without reward as Evans and Azad made use of a good Oval batting track after winning the toss.

Overton did eventually make the breakthrough after almost three hours of play when left-hander Azad mistimed a pull shot and Matt Dunn pulled off a good catch in the deep.

Leicestershire had a brief wobble when Dearden was caught down the leg side by Ben Foakes and Ackermann went lbw, but Lewis Hill (20 not out) provided good support for Evans through to the close.