Trevor Ward smashed his first Championship century for four years and Vince Wells, Iain Sutcliffe and Ben Smith hit their best scores of the season to put Leicestershire in a strong position at Grace Road.

When rain swept in to bring an early finish to the third day of the CricInfo Championship clash with Somerset, the home side had reached 348 for six in their second innings to lead by 361 runs.

But on what is an excellent pitch for batting, skipper Wells may feel he still doesn't have enough runs on the board to declare immediately on the last day. Somerset would be more than capable of chasing that target.

The third day, however, belonged to Leicestershire. They began it by claiming Somerset's last four wickets for 50 runs to dismiss them for 374 and gain a first innings lead of 13. James Ormond took three of the four wickets, while Neil Burns held two more catches to make it seven in the innings – a new wicket-keeping record for Leicestershire.

Then the batsmen took over, with Ward completing his rehabilitation after three miserable years by following up his first innings score of 93 with a sparkling century.

It took him just over two hours, came off 127 balls and contained 20 fours. He was eventually out driving to mid-off after scoring 119 out of an opening stand of 182 – Leicestershire's biggest for two years.

Ward's opening partner Sutcliffe made his first-half century of the season before being dismissed for 58 and, after a mini-collapse, Smith and Wells hammered 132 in 24 overs for the fifth wicket.

Wells was in explosive form, hitting 86 off 63 balls with 10 fours and three sixes while Smith made 66 off 128 balls with eight fours.

On such a pitch Leicestershire are likely to find it difficult to bowl out Somerset in the day, although they will be encouraged by the fact that left-arm spinner Keith Dutch has claimed three of their six wickets.

© CricInfo Ltd.