Cook rises to the occasion but India hit back

Alastair Cook fell short of a valedictory century but still gave England reason to be grateful as their fragility showed once more at The Oval.

Cook laboured for more than four hours to try to fulfil captain Joe Root’s prophecy that a back-to-form hundred may be “written in the stars” in his 161st and final Test.

India seamer Jasprit Bumrah ultimately ensured that would not be the case, bowling the left-hander for 71 off an inside edge to kick-start an England collapse which began with three wickets for one run in nine balls.

Nonetheless, with the first 50 of the series by any opener in this fifth Specsavers Test, Cook served his country well in stands of 60 with Keaton Jennings and 73 alongside Moeen Ali (50) – before the hosts lost six for 48 in the evening session to close on 198 for seven after Root had chosen to bat.

It was apt that Cook’s painstaking contribution was a prime example of his long-established content-over-style method rather than suddenly adhering to the increasingly manic beat of modern Test cricket.

The stoic approach favoured by England’s all-time record runscorer caught on in the second session as Moeen went to an even more static extreme to combat the moving ball.

India’s pace bowlers found ever more assistance through the air and off the pitch.

Significantly, however, that was not the case before lunch as Cook and Jennings shared only England’s second half-century opening stand of a fallow series to date for both.

Chosen at last for his first match of the series, in the absence of the injured Ravi Ashwin, Jadeja saw off Jennings with a sucker punch when the left-hander turned gentle spin straight into the hands of leg-slip.

Cook was in no hurry but did unfurl his trademark one-two for back-to-back boundaries off Bumrah – a square-cut and resounding pull.

Either side of lunch, he was scoreless for 21 deliveries – and approaching 10 overs – while Moeen batted even more slowly, chastened by a remarkable individual collection of plays-and-misses which ended well above 30.

It was a head-scratcher that the afternoon passed wicketless, although only 55 runs accrued from 31 overs.

In early evening, things began happening much more quickly for India.

Cook edged his 190th delivery, an inswinger from round the wicket, down on to middle stump then Root and Jonny Bairstow came and went in an all-Yorkshire blur for respective third and fourth-ball ducks.

Root was lbw toppling over badly against Bumrah, taking an unwise review with him, and then Bairstow fell caught behind off Ishant for his third duck in four innings since he broke his finger keeping wicket in the Trent Bridge Test.

Moeen was still in determined mood and reached his atypical half-century – at a tempo to make Cook proud – from 167 balls, having hit just four fours.

By then he had lost Ben Stokes plumb lbw after a misjudgment against Jadeja, and when Moeen himself and Sam Curran were both caught behind off Ishant in the space of three balls, this was India’s day – despite Cook.