A brace of century partnerships helped Leicestershire lay solid foundations on the opening day of their Championship game against Surrey at the Brit Oval.

County closed on 291-4 after winning the toss, a position carved out by the innings of senior men Boeta Dippenaar and HD Ackerman who were capably supported by two of the younger generation, Greg Smith and James Taylor.

Dippenaar and Smith added 139 for the second wicket, then Ackerman and Taylor combined to put on 105 for the fourth wicket, ensuring that the innings did not fall apart after the loss of a couple of quick wickets.

The day could hardly have got off to a worse start for County. They had only a leg-bye on the board when Matthew Boyce was run out looking to open his account.

As he pushed the ball into the covers, it always looked like a risky single. In fact there was no run there at all as Chris Schofield scored a direct hit and sent the Leicestershire opener back to the pavilion.

By lunch, though, much of that damage had been repaired thanks to Dippenaar and Smith. The latter, brought into the side for his first Championship game of the season, was slow to get going but, importantly, he remained unflustered.

Dippenaar, as might be expected, took the lead role and began to accrue runs more freely with some delightful drives through the offside. It was not long before Smith began to follow suit and some of his straight drives were executed perfectly.

By lunch the duo had taken their side past 100 and the captain had 58 to his name, the dozen boundaries in that tally testament to his patience as he waited for the poor ball and then dispatched it.

Life was a good deal tougher after the interval and in the first 10 overs of the afternoon just eight runs came. Smith was restricted to a handful of singles as Jade Dernbach and Andre Nel gave both batsmen a thorough examination.

Dippenaar, having reached 86, looked to be breaking free from the shackles but was undone by a delivery from Dernbach which extracted a little more bounce from the pitch and Stewart Walters held an excellent catch at second slip.

Smith went shortly afterwards, having made 46 from 151 deliveries – a sound knock at the top of the order and something that has all too frequently been missing from the Leicestershire batting this season.

At 153-3, though, County needed to rebuild and in Ackerman and Taylor they found the perfect pairing.

As Dippenaar had dominated the second-wicket stand, Ackerman took charge in the fourth-wicket partnership. He had a slice of fortune early on when an inside edge brought him a boundary but other than that Ackerman was in fine touch, producing a series of elegant strokes to move past 50.

At the other end Taylor impressed with his determined approach and, although he did not match Ackerman's scoring rate, neither did he get bogged down.

As a result the runs came at a steady rather than rapid rate and Leicestershire continued to make progress.

Like Dippenaar, though, Ackerman fell when a century looked there for the taking. Having struck 11 boundary fours in his 107-ball stay, the South African was caught at slip for 75 as he attempted to drive Schofield's leg spin.

Taylor underlined his growing reputation with a determined half century and at stumps he had compiled 53 from 134 deliveries.

Tom New was unbeaten on 16 to complete a day of encouragement for County at the end of a tough week.