A Dawid Malan century rescued Middlesex on day one of their County Championship match with Northamptonshire.

The hosts were struggling on 36-4 before Malan's 121 not out helped them to 317-7 by the close of play.

Northants' Johannes van der Wath did the damage early on as he took 3-6 off 22 balls, accounting for England pair Andrew Strauss (2) and Owais Shah (1).

However, Eoin Morgan (66) helped steady the ship as he shared a fifth wicket partnership of 121 with Malan.

The dismissals of Strauss and Shah left Middlesex struggling on 8-2 and just seven runs later opener Billy Godleman became Van der Wath's third victim.

Ed Joyce contributed a quick 21 before his dismissal which brought Malan to the crease for his Championship debut after a series of excellent performances in the Twenty20 Cup.

Both he and Morgan set about rescuing their side's innings and Morgan completed his 50 just before lunch off 75 balls.

After his dismissal Ben Scott (50) carried on Middlesex's good work as he and Malan put on 115 before Scott fell to Van der Wath in the first over with the new ball.

Tim Murtagh became the seventh man to fall on the first day, driving loosely at Johann Louw in the penultimate over of the day having recorded 18.