Nick Compton makes half-century as England draw with Mumbai A

Samit Patel: Mopped up the tail to finish with the best figures of any England bowler

Nick Compton: Did his chances of a Test call-up no harm with a knock of 64 not out

Nick Compton boosted his hopes of securing a place in England's Test side by scoring a half-century as the three-day tour match with Mumbai A ended in a draw.

The opener, who had scored a combined total of one in his two previous innings on tour, made an unbeaten 64 as England reached 149-2 by stumps on the final day at the Dr DY Patil Sports Stadium.

Joe Root, Compton's rival to be the successor to the spot vacated by Andrew Strauss, only managed 24 to add to his first-innings total of 28.

Stuart Broad eased injury fears by taking to the field, although he was absent from the bowling attack as Monty Panesar and Samit Patel helped quickly dismiss the hosts for 286 to give Compton time to shine.

Test hopefuls Root and Compton put on an opening stand of 38, with the former outscoring the latter before he played no shot at an inswinger and was trapped lbw by Shardul Thakur.

Compton also survived Jonathan Trott, who was dismissed lbw by Suryakumar Yadav for 30, before reaching a steady half-century off 142 deliveries.

Drop

England had earlier ripped through the Mumbai A middle and lower order on their way to securing a first-innings lead of 59.

In the first full over of the morning, Graham Onions had Hiken Shah caught behind for 92 and the remaining five wickets then fell over the next 90 minutes for the cost of just 46 runs.

Panesar took two of them to return figures of 3-64 but it was Patel who finished as the best bowler statistically as he mopped up the tail to end with 3-44.The all-rounder struck with his first delivery of the day when Sufiyan Shaikh was caught low down at cover by Compton for one.

Patel took the last two wickets in two balls, Kshemal Waingankar (14) snapped up one-handed at second slip by a diving Trott and Javed Khan bowled slogging for a duck.

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