It was a testing two hours for England’s opening duo of Alastair Cook and Keaton Jennings but, to their credit, they preserved their wickets to go to lunch on the last day of the fifth Test in Chennai at 97/0 and giving India a wicketless session to endure.

Not that India did not have their chances. Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, the latter brought in later, asked plenty of questions, getting the ball to whiz and rush past the outside edge innumerable times. Bat-pads fell just short, the edge was taken but it went though vacant fielding positions. Even then, India should had, at least, one opening in the session but they continued their tradition of being generous with the opposition: Parthiv Patel dropped a chance off Alastair Cook in the eighth ball of the fifth over.

It was a beautiful delivery from Ashwin which drifted in and moved away and the England captain found himself poking at it uncertainly. The ball took a thick edge but unfortunately, Patel shelved a simple chance. Later Amit Mishra had another chance: Jennings hit a firm shot straight to KL Rahul at short-leg, but the ball did not stick.

While both batsmen preferred discretion over valour and remained content with defence, Jennings did unfurl a few neat reverse sweeps, demonstrating that he is a batsman England need to persist with.

Brief scores:

England 477 and 97/0 (Alastair Cook 47 not out, Keaton Jennings 46 not out) trail India 759/7 declared by 185 runs