Confident Compton Comes Good

Compton: Coming on leaps and bounds

Composure is a trait often sought after and rarely found in professional sport. How many times have you heard a mistake made by a sportsperson referred to as a ‘rush of blood to the head’?

That phrase demonstrates an impatience or misjudgement – neither of which were applicable to England opener Nick Compton on the first days play of the second test match against New Zealand in Wellington.

Hot on the heels of his maiden century in Dunedin last week, was another today as, finally, he played how he wanted and how England expects.

New Zealand captain Brendan McCullum’s decision, having won the toss, to make England bat must have been music to the ears of Compton, eager to prove that he belongs in the test arena and to make up for the years spent outside of it.

At 29 years old, you could be forgiven for calling the South African-born batsman a late bloomer. He was clearly nervous about his place in the side having made good starts in India but not converting them – his highest score was a resilient 57 in Kolkata.

The nerves also jangled last week when he was stuck in the 90’s for nearly an hour, just one or two strokes away from triple figures. In a similarly patient and determined manner to his teammates Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott, who have also posted three figure scores on this tour, he bided his time for the watershed moment.

His knock today, which was ended exactly on the ton mark by Bruce Martin, was played with confidence in conditions conducive to Compton’s large strides forward and upper arm control on a pitch that offered little for the bowlers and had England, for a short stint, racing along above six runs per over after the tea interval.

The presence of the steely-eyed Trott down the other end, who uncharacteristically started to outscore Compton and reach 121* for the day, added an assurance to proceedings.

Compton’s career took time to come to the fore, as did his England selection and subsequent run scoring. However now it has, England look balanced on the face of the partnerships their batsmen have built recently – Cook and Compton provided 231 last week, while Trott and Compton put on 210 this.

Today was a good day for the tourists who finished 267/2 at stumps (Cook and Kevin Pietersen scoring 17 and 18* respectively), and while they are playing a low ranked side and are by no means the finished article, one of the remaining pieces of the jigsaw is starting to fit snugly in to place.