Application was the key to Leicestershire's sound start against Surrey at the Brit Oval yesterday according to senior coach Tim Boon.

Century stands between Boeta Dippenaar and Greg Smith, and HD Ackerman and James Taylor left Boon with a smile on his face at stumps.

"I'm pleased with the way the day has gone. Now we need to kick on," he said.

"There was a little bit in the pitch early on so it wasn't a straightforward decision to bat first. But our foundations are good."

Boon said the accuracy of the Surrey attack, most notably after lunch, meant that runs were never going to come at a high rate so the batters had to stay around to accumulate.

"They really squeezed us hard after lunch and stopped us scoring," said Boon.

"But our application was excellent and that paved the way for Hylton and Jimmy to play nicely."

The County boss was also delighted to see Smith put runs on the board in his first Championship game of the season.

The former England Under-19 batsman has been unavailable for much of the year because of his studies at Durham University while a broken thumb also limited his opportunities.

But Boon said: "He was commanding before lunch and did a great job because Surrey didn't bowl too many bad balls.

"Greg also left exceptionally well outside off stump and that is an area that we need to improve on."

While Smith is making his seasonal debut for County, young fast bowler Nathan Buck has also been called into the Championship side for the first time.

The England Under-19 paceman steps in for the unavailable Iain O'Brien, Wayne White having been ruled out with injury late on Thursday.