Compton guides England to lunch

Nick Compton and Jonathan Trott eased England to a lunchtime 75 for one after the early loss of Alastair Cook in the second Test against New Zealand at the Basin Reserve.

Cook, a little embarrassed perhaps to be described by his opposite number Brendon McCullum as a "genius" batsman second only to Don Bradman on Tuesday, was unable to live up to that hype.

He could muster only 17 before falling in strange circumstances to first-change Neil Wagner, and it therefore fell to Compton and number three Trott to claim the first session for England with an unbroken stand of 49 after the tourists had been put in.

Cook and Compton appeared untroubled for 45 minutes until the England captain unaccountably pushed a length ball from Wagner straight into the hands of mid-on at the start of the left-armer's second over.

There had been good carry with the new ball for Tim Southee and Trent Boult, but a suspicion of unpredictable pace in the surface as Cook departed with a long look at the pitch after his curious dismissal.

Compton immediately responded with a one-two demonstration of his two favourite shots in the same Wagner over.

First, he had ample time to climb into his second pulled four of a sunny morning; then two balls later, it was the Compton extra-cover drive which brought him another boundary.

His and Trott's first job was to make sure there would be no first-innings collapse here to match the one that put England in such trouble before they fought back to draw last week's rain-shortened first Test in Dunedin.

They duly did so with minimum fuss, in increasingly comfortable conditions which had McCullum turning to spin in only the 21st over in an attempt to make something happen and therefore vindicate a decision at the toss which was threatening to pay little dividend.

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