Slick Nick, the spit of grandad Denis Compton
Opener digs in with sparkling Bairstow to rescue England
THE steely eyes, the graceful swing of the bat and, yes, a debonair dab of Brylcreem… it doesn’t take the most eagle-eyed cricket fan to spot the striking resemblance.
And as Nick Compton played his first Test for England on home soil for three years yesterday, he was no doubt hoping to emulate his legendary grandfather Denis in far more than just looks.
Unfortunately for the Old Harrovian – a former boyfriend of Princess Diana’s niece Lady Kitty Spencer – he was out for a duck against Sri Lanka at Headingley.
While Denis scored 5,807 runs for England – including 17 centuries – from 1937 to 1957, South Africa-born Nick’s international career has been less prolific.
The 32-year-old has a Test average of 31, while his grandfather’s topped 50.
He would perhaps do well to heed the advice the late, great Denis gave him playing cricket in the garden as a child: ‘Oh for heaven’s sake, just hit the bloody thing.’
IT TOOK a good oldfashioned display of grit and application from a batsman who epitomises England’s new aggressive approach to rescue Alastair Cook from a terrible start to the Test summer.
Alex Hales is not exactly known for digging in but he went a long way towards proving he can adapt to the longer game with a disciplined unbeaten 71 on a difficult, shortened, opening day of the first Investec Test.
Headingley yesterday was about as different from England’s last assignment, the World Twenty20 final in Kolkata, as it is possible to be, with bleak weather, a poor crowd and attritional cricket replacing the glitz, glamour and crash, bang, wallop.
Yet it was Sri Lanka who responded best to archetypal Leeds conditions as a dibbly-dobbler of a debutant in Dasun Shanaka ripped the heart out of England’s fragile top order and ruined Cook’s date with Test run-making destiny.
It looked certain that Cook would soon be raising his bat to mark 10,000 runs in Test cricket when he moved carefully to 16 of the 36 he needed after Angelo Mathews won what looked like an important toss.
But the introduction of Shanaka, in the side primarily as a batsman and the fifth bowler used by Mathews, changed everything as the foundations of England’s platform came crashing down around Hales.
England have achieved much in the last year by copying Brendon McCullum’s entertaining Test template but on days like yesterday they needed to earn the right to play the enterprising shots that led to the bulk of the top order’s downfall.
Shanaka, bowling at barely more than 70mph, simply pitched the ball up just outside off stump and watched Cook, Nick Compton and Joe Root depart to give him three wickets for one run in the space of eight balls. It created the most demanding of circumstances for James Vince to make his debut and, after displaying the elegance that has marked his rise with two classy boundaries off Shaminda Eranga, he too fell loosely outside off stump.
When Ben Stokes’s attempt at a counter-attack ended with him dying by the sword and lobbing horribly to mid-on, England were in big trouble and struggling to cope with the expectations that come with their rare status as firm favourites.
But Hales, who took 112 balls to reach his second Test 50, found the perfect partner in Jonny Bairstow, who succeeded in taking the attack to Sri Lanka in an unbeaten stand of 88 interrupted only by the rain that swept in at tea.
Only when Bairstow — who has already scored a double hundred and 198 for Yorkshire here this season — arrived did Sri Lanka stray from their full-pitched approach, sensing the Yorkshireman might be vulnerable to the short ball.
It proved to be a bigg mistake as Bairstow did a more than passable impression of Matt Prior at his peak, coming in at seven and moving smoothly to 54 off 67 balls, including a sixi off Ranga Herath overr long-on.
Bairstow did have a ‘reprieve’ on 40 when he was given out lbw by Rod Tucker off the medium pace of Mathews, but proved justified in reviewing what looked like a fair decision. Tech-nology had the ball missing leg stump.
How costly that might prove to a Sri Lanka side whose chances of repeating theirir famous victory here two years ago had looked slim before this three-match series, now they are without legends Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene.
There are those who would have Bairstow, the form batsman of the early weeks of the season, at No 5 in this side, with Jos Buttler returning as keeper, but the Yorkshireman is determined to prove himself as a genuine all-rounder.
His batting, which has improved in leaps and bounds over the last year or so, certainly looks well suited to the role most famously implemented by Adam Gilchrist and replicated to a large extent for England by Prior.
Here Bairstow was the perfect foil to Hales and is now more than halfway towards the Test century on his home ground that he put at the top of his ‘bucket list’ in the first of his columns for Sportsmail this week. ‘He was brilliant,’ said Hales of Bairstow. ‘To do what he did on a wicket like that shows how much he’s come on as a Test batsman. He looks the real deal.’
How valuable a three-figure score would be for Hales, who averaged just 17 in his four Tests in South Africa. And the rain may have come at a good time for him as he was just starting to look impatient against the wiles of Herath.
Before then Hales justified the decision of the selectors in giving him another chance to prove he can excel in white clothing as he does in blue and red, moving to his highest Test score of 71 from 154 balls.
‘I’ve tweaked a couple of things, particularly outside off stump, because in South Africa I got caught between defence and attack,’ said Hales. ‘It’s still a work in progress but I did think it was tricky today. Conditions were tough and I had to rein myself in.’
England’s other show of faith to an underperforming batsman was less successful, Compton lasting just three balls before he pushed with hard hands at Shanaka on the ground where his first coming as a Test player ground to a halt three years ago.
The longevity of his second coming must now be in considerable doubt and a man encouraged to relax by his captain ahead of this Test was later seen in deep conversation with batting coach Mark Ramprakash about his problems.
All eyes will be on Compton when he next bats but for now England must hope Hales and Bairstow continue to dig them out of the pickle caused in conditions that, ironically, the ECB are looking to eliminate from county cricket by abandoning the toss.
It was Sri Lanka who looked most at home yesterday.
ALEX HALES insisted he always felt at home at Test level after his career-best 71 not out helped England recover on the first day of the Investec series against Sri Lanka. The hosts closed on 171 for five after Hales and Jonny Bairstow — unbeaten on 54 — put on 88 in 21 overs following a top-order collapse. Hales made just one half-century in four Tests in South Africa but said: ‘Throughout the series I didn’t feel out of my depth. I feel like I have come a long way in the last six months.’