Why didn’t Ithink of this playing for England, cries Nick
Middlesex 536-9d beat Durham 204 & 252 by an innings and 80 runs
NICK Compton reached his first century for 11 months to help Middlesex extend their County Championship lead and beamed: “Bloody hell, it’s nice to have that feeling again.”
Speaking after his 131 against Durham, Compton added: “It almost felt like going back to getting my first hundred.
“I’m still trying to work out how badly it went over the last three or four months. I’ve not been in bad form like that for about eight years, where I literally felt like batting left-handed might have been a better option at one stage.
“It’s horrible when you’re in an England shirt and that’s happening, because you almost want to stop time.”
Compton credited an adjustment of his stance for his revival. “I’ve worked out a few technical things over the last four or five hours and I thought, ‘oh my word, why didn’t I think of this against Sri Lanka?’
“I just realised that I’ve been closing myself off a bit. I’ve been trying everything, but actually realised last night that I should open my stance a bit. As soon as I did I suddenly realised where my off-stump was again, the straight ball didn’t feel threatening. But it was a shame that the timing was what it was.
“I just felt like all the angles and lines suddenly worked again – anything marginally outside offstump I felt like the whole off-side opened up again.”
Compton’s loss of form culminated in him being dropped by England and taking a break from the game.
“I wasn’t doing myself any good at the time, but I’m very grateful to England and Middlesex,” he said.
“I was practising hard and trying to work out what was going wrong, but you almost feel that you’re flogging a dead horse after a while and you actually have to be honest with yourself.
“It’s not a case of being weak but being honest with yourself and saying, ‘you know what? I’m fried here, I know it’s there somewhere but I just can’t seem to find it’.
“Some of the shots and the ways I was getting out were painful for me. You don’t want to let yourself down, you’ve got 10 other great players in that changing room and wearing an England shirt is something that I’ve always wanted to do.”
Now, after sharing a stand of 247 with Nick Gubbins, Compton hopes to help Middlesex to their first title since 1993.“Winning the title would be amazing. I came here because this is my club, one I’ve played for and one my grandfather had great history with and it’s something that hasn’t been achieved for years.” After ending their run of five draws in Championship matches at Lord’s in 2016, Middlesex will have lofty aspirations the barren streak could end this year.
Ollie Rayner bowled with bounce, turn and guile en route to match figures of 9-102, and Middlesex have a 16-day wait until their next fixture in any competition. Three testing away fixtures, at Edgbaston, Trent Bridge and Old Trafford, await.
Should they come through those, then, when Middlesex they next return to Lord’s to play Yorkshire on September 20, they will expect to lift their 11th County Championship crown.