Tense session sees England to lunch unscathed

ENGLAND came through a tense first session unscathed as they made the perfect start to their bid to bat out the final day and seal a stalemate in the fifth Test against India in Chennai.

Alastair Cook, whose future as Test captain is the subject of ever-growing debate as England near the end of an arduous series they have already lost, had it in his own hands to achieve a successful rearguard at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.

He duly reached lunch, still with his opening partner Keaton Jennings, in a total of 97-0 after England had started their second innings — 282 runs adrift — five overs from stumps on the penultimate evening.

Cook (47 not out) had an early escape on four, in the third over of the morning, when he edged a Ravi Ashwin off-break behind only for keeper Parthiv Patel to put down the routine chance.

His prize here is limited to a 3-0 series defeat, rather than 4-0, but it was beginning to come into focus.

There was more turn available, understandably, than at any time previously on a pitch which has strongly favoured the batsmen throughout — and the introduction of Ravindra Jadeja immediately presented a new challenge for Cook, who has been dismissed six times in the series by the slow left-armer.

But it was leg-spinner Amit Mishra who almost took a wicket in his first over, when Jennings (46no) advanced on 31 and middled the ball to short-leg where KL Rahul very nearly hung on to an instinctive half-chance.

Instead, as both left-handed openers defended without alarm and swept effectively, England made it to lunch with many of the initial nerves calmed, albeit with a minimum 58 overs still remaining.

Andy Murray