Any momentum that England had before tea was completely swept away by a counter-attacking unbeaten 161-run partnership between two young and talented Karnataka batsmen, KL Rahul and Karun Nair.

Rahul, who had already got his way to a century before the session, seemed in a stupor before a tiff with Joe Root riled him up. The opener was batting on 146 when in the last ball of the 81st over, Joe Root threw a defensive push straight towards Rahul who ducked for safety and was suitably angry. Root gave a half-apology but it woke Rahul up: He started becoming much more aggressive, ran ever so harder and started getting the boundaries required.

The opener went past the 150-mark and looked good to become the second Indian opener to get a double century against England after the venerable Sunil Gavaskar, before one loose shot, probably the only one of his entire knock, cost him painfully on 199. Only one other Indian batsman, Mohammad Azharuddin has been out on 199 in Tests.

Right at the end, he went hard at a wide delivery outside off stump but only looped it to Jos Buttler at cover point. The entire Indian dressing room, in anticipation of celebrating his double ton were shocked, but Rahul’s reaction said it all: Crouching in disbelief, hands on his head and painfully trudging away.

But, Karun Nair’s knock at the other end also drew praise. The 25-year-old has not had the best of starts to Test cricket and he came in a situation where England sensed an opening. However, he blunted England’s attack, frustrating them with quick runs and boundaries and stretching the partnership to over 100.

England’s lead is now just 86 and they will be fearful of Mumbai where they put on 400 and still managed to lose by an innings. The Chennai pitch looks different but there is no saying what Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja can do over the next two days.

Brief scores:

India 391/4 (KL Rahul 199, Karun Nair 71 not out; Ben Stokes 1/37, Stuart Broad 1/46) trail England 477 by 86 runs