Nick Compton holds himself to such high standards that it was no surprise that the word “disappointing” featured prominently in his post-match comments. At the age of 32, with his sights still firmly set on an England recall, judging himself harshly is a must.
The first use of the word was levelled at his team. Having skittled Hampshire for 176 on day one and starting day two on 59 without loss, they lost five wickets for 53 in the morning session to undo their good work.
It was Gareth Berg, returning to his former haunt, who started the mid-morning collapse when his and the day’s fourth ball trapped Sam Robson in front for 17. The dismissal means it is now 11 innings since Robson, like Compton, a former incumbent of that England opening spot alongside Alastair Cook, passed fifty. In the interest of transparency, 12 innings ago Robson scored a brilliant 178 against Durham here at Lord’s. But it is this, the dexterous use of statistics to quantify a batsman’s worth, that Compton is all too aware of.
His 87 was a cut above anything else his team-mates could muster, including Eoin Morgan, who slashed his second ball to first slip for a duck. Compton’s knock helped Middlesex stay on top of the visitors, who operated well with the ball throughout. But it was another disappointing end to a lot of hard work. To the only ball of the day that turned noticeably Compton came down the track to dab it to square-leg only to find his outside edge taken low at first slip. It looked, for a moment, that he was contesting the legitimacy of James Vince’s low catch by staying put. At stumps he revealed it was just dismay.
“I think I’ve got 10 scores between 80 and 100 in the last two years,” he said. “That hurts you when you’re trying to push for higher honours. All people look at is a scoreboard and, if you’ve got a hundred it makes them take notice. It’s quite hard to take because you feel you’ve worked your balls off for that and to fall so close to the landmark is not great.”
“I got a 100 and then two 70s, back-to-back, and then an 80-odd. If I’d just batted a bit longer and with a bit more composure I’d have got four hundreds on the bounce. I could say, ‘Hey, now talk to me.’ Unfortunately that’s the world we live in.”
Compton shared a sixth-wicket stand of 111 with John Simpson (64), who registered his second half-century of the season, to take Middlesex into a lead which sits overnight on 122. As the impressive Bradley Wheal’s dismissal of James Harris showed – the ball nipping up the slope and seemingly getting no higher than his ankles – batting last will not be an easy task.
