Keaton shines on his debut

KEATON Jennings overcame two early scrapes to post a half-century on his debut as England made a fine start to the fourth Test against India.

Jennings (65no) was dropped on nought, a looping one-handed chance to Karun Nair at gully off Umesh Yadav, and also survived a close umpire’s call for lbw against Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

But he soon became more assured, and there were some convincing coverdrives and pulls among his six fours in an 89-ball 50 as he and Alastair Cook helped the tourists to a lunchtime 117 for one after winning an important toss in Mumbai.

Jennings was dropped just before he got off the mark with a cut for four off Umesh — from the 12th ball he faced — and he then immediately doubled up with a crunching pull for a second boundary.

Bhuvneshwar was within a whisker of an overturn via DRS from round the wicket when, on 10, Jennings survived as simulation demonstrated impact was not quite fully on off-stump.

The new boy took the majority of the strike from his captain, and was soon sweeping off-spinners Ravi Ashwin and Jayant Yadav deftly — with pad outside the line and minimal risk.

England’s opening pair were putting into action coach Trevor Bayliss’ instruction to return to batting with ‘intent’, as in last month’s drawn opener in Rajkot.

But it was an approach which would cost Cook his wicket four short of his 50, in a typical fashion for England’s greatest accumulator of runs, when he went up the pitch in Ravindra Jadeja’s first over and fell to a juggled stumping by Parthiv Patel as the ball turned and bounced between bat and body.