Compton shines against modest opposition

Nick Compton took most notable advantage as England eased to a tea-time 245 for two against a modest Haryana attack at the Sardar Patel Stadium B Ground.

Compton (74) and Alastair Cook (97) breezed past a century opening stand well before lunch off all but one over of seam - and that from Jayant Yadav, rather than Test leg-spinner Amit Mishra.

As captain Mishra stuck earnestly to India's apparent plan to deprive England of meaningful practice against frontline spin in their warm-up campaign, the openers cashed in on an even batting surface.

As preparation for the four-Test series, the benefit was arguable.

But England could not pick their opponents, and there was no question that another confidence boost for Compton - surely now a certainty to make his Test debut as Cook's opening partner next week - was an especially handy outcome.

He was assured from the outset, and Cook had an air of command on his return as he hit 20 fours in all after sitting out his team's second tour match against Mumbai A.

The captain was within one more blow of his hundred when he edged an attempted cut behind off Yadav, the curiosity of the dismissal being that Sandeep Singh took the catch from the very first delivery after replacing the injured Nitin Saini as wicketkeeper.

Compton was joined by Jonathan Trott, a partnership which took England past 200.

But Mishra at last decided to bring himself on - at 211 for one after 50 overs - and it took only seven deliveries before he had Compton lbw pushing well forward to a quicker ball.

Kevin Pietersen, in his second innings back since his well-chronicled summer of discontent and subsequent 'reintegration' into the team, kept Trott company till tea.