Ben Smith smashed his second century of the season and his best score for two years as Leicestershire set Surrey a formidable victory target of 536 runs in the CricInfo Championship clash at Grace Road.

Home captain Vince Wells finally called a halt to his side's second innings run feast with the total at 472 for eight, leaving Surrey to face seven overs before the close.

And, predictably, after a day in the field in the sauna-like conditions, the visitors lost a wicket with Nadeem Shahid edging Devon Malcolm low to third slip Trevor Ward with the score at 20. By the close Surrey were 28 for one, still needing another 508 runs for an unlikely win.

With two days remaining the home side are firmly in the driving seat and, weather permitting, are hot favourites to clinch victory.

It was certainly a stark contrast to the first day when 20 wickets fell, and Leicestershire's performance second time round merely emphasised the fact that the pitch was blameless.

Smith was the cornerstone of their efforts with a magnificent 179 off 281 balls with 21 fours before driving a catch to cover off the bowling of Adam Hollioake. Along the way Smith shared a third-wicket stand of 167 with Daniel Marsh and then put on 108 with Neil Burns for the seventh wicket.

Marsh hammered 82 off 126 balls, the sixth time he has gone past 50 this summer, while wicket-keeper Burns was unbeaten on 66, his best Championship score of the season.

Surrey were handicapped by the fact that leg spinner Ian Salisbury was off the field all day with a foot injury. This put a heavy workload on Saqlain Mushtaq but he responded with a marathon unbroken spell of 47.2 overs, bowling throughout the day until the declaration came. He finished with figures of five for 172 – and then came in as night-watchman when Shahid was out.

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