Having the famous forebear can also be a burden, but this Compton,29, has already exceeded the highest Test score his grandfather, Denis, made against New Zealand in New Zealand, which was 79.

He still has some way to go to match the 17 hundreds Denis Compton made for England, and he possesses little of his dash, but he is on his way now with the almost certain guarantee of an Ashes series to add lustre to any more he might score.

His hundred here in Dunedin was chanceless, as was Cook’s, though England’s situation was perfectly tailored to his personality and style.

Needing to bat at least five sessions to save the match, after conceding a first innings deficit of 293, it was if the spec had been written specially for him, his strengths being patience and an organised mind used to plotting long innings.

His concentration was so fierce that he did not appear to notice when Brendon McCullum, in an attempt to work a wicket, posted two fielders at short mid-on and then swapped them around just as Tim Southee ran in to bowl.

Here in Dunedin, on a pitch that had gone to sleep and against an attack that had one pace bowler feeling his way back after injury (Southee), two more with 15 Tests between them and a spinner making his debut, he looked in control despite getting bogged down in the nineties.

In fact, the biggest threat seemed to come from the run-out with him and Cook having several close shaves, ones that might have been terminal had New Zealand’s fielders managed to hit the stumps direct.

Apart from those occasional mix ups, having Cook as an opening partner is clearly a solace to Compton.

England’s captain has already given his public support to him as well as extolling the virtues of having a left-right combination at the head of the order, to jog bowlers off their line.

Their stand had reached 231 when Trent Boult dismissed Cook for 116, beating the previous highest opening partnership for England against New Zealand, the 223 made by Graeme Fowler and Chris Tavare at the Oval in 1983.

It was also Cook and Compton's third 100-partnership together from ten attempts, a higher percentage, for now, than Cook and Andrew Strauss, who made 12 century stands from 117 innings.

Cook reached his hundred first, with a swept four off Bruce Martin, but it was a facsimile of so many Cook centuries of late, being based on a watertight defence and a clinical dispatch of the bad ball.

When you see him as resolutely back to business as he was yesterday, you wonder why he appeared so flaky in the first innings when, uncharacteristically for him, he was not in control of his shots striking the ball in the air several times.

Perhaps he felt the need to be positive against New Zealand in the first innings after they had won the toss and put England in to bat and, as senior partner, he had wanted to make the running.

Strauss did something similar when Cook first started and fell foul of it, a lesson the latter appears to have learnt from, given his return to old ways, in the space of an innings.

With his hundred, Cook now draws ahead of the quartet of England batsmen, which includes Kevin Pietersen, on 22 Test hundreds to join Vivian Richards, one of the great cricketers, on 24.

Cook has none of Richards' charisma or virtuosity but he tends to get the job done with a minimum of fuss, which has its attractions.

With two days to go, and a match to be saved, his job here was to see England through to stumps without loss.

He failed, just, but if most would have forgiven him the tired nibble he had at Boult with the second new ball, he was not in the mood, angrily swishing his bat in disappointment as he trudged off, his standards long set higher than everyone else.

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