Andy Bichel's maiden championship century for Essex rescued his side after Middlesex had reduced the visitors to 97 for six in the LV County Championship match at Lord's.

Bichel scored a superb 102 and shared a much needed-stand of 161 with James Middlebrook to steer Essex to a respectable 342 for seven at the close.

The Australian pace bowler went to his century in the 79th over with a huge six - his third of the day - but then holed out to the mid-on boundary having faced 138 balls with nine fours.

With Middlebrook scoring an undefeated 108 from 242 balls, Essex will start the second day in a healthy position after they had been earlier left to rue their decision to bat.

Having won the toss, Essex were soon in trouble with Mark Pettini (4) falling in the seventh over, beaten by the in-swing of Chris Silverwood and given out leg before.

Varun Chopra (9) fell in the same way to Silverwood as the Essex batsmen struggled to deal with the seam movement from the former England bowler.

Following a stand of 30 from Ravi Bopara and Grant Flower it was then the turn of Chaminda Vaas to get among the wickets. First to go was Flower, who fell to another leg-before decision after scoring just four.

Bopara looked in good form with some neat shots, but having reached 25 he fell into the Sri Lankan bowler's trap.

Vaas moved Billy Godleman from slip to mid-wicket and Bopara chipped straight to the fielder to leave Essex on 49 for four.

A further nine runs were added before wicketkeeper James Foster (7) drove spinner Murali Kartik to slip, where captain Ed Smith grabbed the catch at the second attempt.

A quickfire 20 from Ryan ten Doeschate saw the visitors on to 97 before he fell to Vaas, again trapped leg before, in the second over after lunch. Vaas was the pick of the Middlesex bowlers finishing with figures of three for 66.

The hosts were hampered by the loss of seam bowler Tim Murtagh, who pulled up halfway through his fourth over with a hamstring injury which could keep him out of the rest of the game.

Leicestershire seamers David Masters and Stuart Broad ripped through Northamptonshire's top order as the hosts slumped to 53 for three on a rain-affected first day of their LV County Championship Division Two clash.

Masters (2-24) and Broad (1-24) gave the visitors the upper hand despite only having the ball for 18 overs before the heavens opened again to prevent more misery for the home side.

But it was not all doom and gloom for Northants - keeper Riki Wessels fought fire with fire in the afternoon, smashing 37 off 46 balls after coming to the crease with the hosts on nine for three.

Australian Chris Rogers returned from injury and Wessels was favoured over Ireland's Niall O'Brien for Northants.