A gritty knock from Alastair Cook in the farewell Test helped England propel on day one of the fifth Test before team India pacers struck back at the Kennington Oval.
Meanwhile, Joe Root won his fifth toss in succession and elected to bat. The visitors gave a guard of honour as a show of respect, but when play started, the pleasantries ended. The England openers put on 60-odd runs, their highest opening stand over a year.
Having worked hard to reach 23 however, Keaton Jennings was furious with his dismissal. He tucked his 75th ball, from Ravindra Jadeja, into the waiting hands of leg slip. By Tea England had still only lost just the one wicket, but Cook and Moeen Ali, starting a Test match at No. 3 for the first time in his career, didn’t have it all their own way.
Both were given lives in the slips – Cook dropped by KL Rahul off Ishant Sharma, and Ali by Virat Kohli three balls later, off Ishant Sharma, and they had to negotiate an excellent spell from Mohammed Shami, who somehow ended the day wicketless despite beating the bat throughout. India did manage to keep the scoring rate down, with Cook and Ali scoring at well under two runs per over throughout their partnership of 73, which took over 40 overs.
Cook was more fluent of the duo, giving hopes of finish his career with a century. But he (71) inside-edged from Bumrah onto his stumps, walking off to a standing ovation.
India capitalised on the momentum as they send back Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow both for ducks in a span of eight balls.
Ben Stokes and Ali attempted to repair the damage, but again the runs didn’t flow. Stokes continued his poor run as Jadeja deceived him with the flight to trap his in front of the wicket. His dismissal precipitated another slide. Ishant continued his good run as India finished on to at the end of day one.
Jos Buttler and Adil Rashid have started to repair the damage when the umpires called it off at 198 for 7.