- Follow all the action from the final day of the fifth Test in Chennai
- India battering may decide Cook’s captaincy, says Bayliss
- Email dan.lucas@theguardian.com or tweet @DanLucas86
37th over: England 97-0 (Cook 47, Jennings 46) Chance! Cook tries to play Ashwin against the spin again and gets a leading edge, but the ball flies too fast for Pujara to react at silly point. The captain survives though and it’s mission one-third accomplished for England.
36th over: England 95-0 (Cook 46, Jennings 45) It’s just a change of ends for Jadeja, so Mishra is the man hooked. He’s unlucky not to have got a wicket early on in his spell but thereafter England found him pretty easy to score off. There is a big appeal when Cook flicks at one down the leg-side but no review – to be honest that was so leg-side I thought they were appealing for the catch at leg-slip at first. It wasn’t remotely close to that either.
“Poor Mishra. If he was English there would have been a film made about him by now. And an OBE,” writes that sleepless nomad Copestake.
35th over: England 95-0 (Cook 46, Jennings 45) Ashwin, by far the best bowler on show this morning, returns. Slip, silly point, short-leg and leg-slip hover but
Tippi Hedren Alastair Cook is able to work Ashwin against the spin, through square-leg for three. Jennings, on the other hand, decides to go with the turn and hammers a reverse-sweep through point for four more.
34th over: England 88-0 (Cook 43, Jennings 41) Even Kohli misfields now, allowing Cook a single. Reckon that’s a signal they can shake on this one.
@DanLucas86 Haseeb Hameed is the real deal. Jennings not so much but hope he improves - need to bolster top order options. #lestweforget
33rd over: England 87-0 (Cook 42, Jennings 41) There are 15 minutes or so until lunch. As well as these two have played this morning, you do feel like England’s middle order is always good for an end-of-series collapse. Jadeja finds the top-edge of Jennings’ bat but the ball loops away from the fielders and the batsman gets a single from both of them. Alastair Cook, meanwhile, is given four freebies when Mishra goes all Jesse-Ventura-In-Predator and hurls the ball awkwardly and violently in front of Patel; the ball shoots away to the boundary for buzzers.
32nd over: England 79-0 (Cook 36, Jennings 40) Shot of the morning from Jennings, who comes forward and rolls it sublimely along the carpet, through midwicket and away for four. Mishra responds by pushing one through a bit quicker, getting a bucketload of turn still and tying the batsman up in knots. A handful of singles makes this a productive over for England.
@DanLucas86 you play and Hameed and Jennings. With Root at 4. We can't play Ali that high in Australia
31st over: England 72-0 (Cook 35, Jennings 34) It’s actually looking tougher for Cook than it is Jennings out there. The latter splits leg-slip and leg-gully to get a single, while the former edges just short of forward short-leg and plays and misses outside off.
30th over: England 71-0 (Cook 35, Jennings 33) Mishra looks like a man with a point to prove here. Which makes sense. After he beats Cook – and indeed Patel – down the leg-side (two byes there being the first extras of the innings, by my reckoning), the England captain top-edges a sweep safely for four. Rahul at short-leg half heartedly goes up for a catch two balls later but the ball looped up off the pad, nowhere near bat.
29th over: England 65-0 (Cook 31, Jennings 33) One to Cook, two to Jennings. “Why are you on such a downer about Jennings,” asks Paul Landon. “Yes he hasn’t done anything since scoring a hundred on his debut but he’s worth persevering with and I’m sure he will come good. Give the lad a chance! It would be great if he could get a score today. We’ve a habit in this country of building up a player then as soon as he has a dip in form discarding them.”
Does anyone remember Haseeb Hameed?
28th over: England 62-0 (Cook 30, Jennings 31) Having bowled through from the start of the day, Ashwin gets a rest and replaced by Mishra. The leg-spinner is a good bowler but has been pretty ordinary in this series: he’s taken four wickets at 61 and gone for nearly four an over. He’s close to improving those numbers when Jennings comes down the track, tries to whip it through midwicket and is dropped at short-leg! That would have been a wondrous catch: it came pretty fast off the face of the bat, straight into KL Rahul’s hands and out again. The second drop of the day but you’d be a harsh critic to blame the fielder for that one.
27th over: England 62-0 (Cook 30, Jennings 31) Jennings sweeps and gets a single. “Ooh good idea,” thinks Cook. He plays the same shot and is lucky to miss it as the ball loops up off his boot to slip. “That was a practice,” he decides and a couple of balls later nails the shot for four. Leg-slip, short-leg and short midwicket then decide to crowd the bat.
26th over: England 57-0 (Cook 26, Jennings 30) Another reverse sweep from Jennings whizzes past slip and away to the backward point boundary, all along the floor. I will say he plays the sweep and reverse so well as release shots.
25th over: England 51-0 (Cook 26, Jennings 25) Here’s Ravi Jadeja and he immediately has a good shout for lbw against Cook! The batsman comes forward and plays down the wrong line, but Kohli declines to review. Good idea, too, as it was turning past leg-stump. The bowler also reckons Jennings might have edged the last ball but the noise was bat on ground.
24th over: England 50-0 (Cook 25, Jennings 25) A couple more to Jennings, scored via a neat reverse-sweep through point, brings up the England 50. Two balls later he edges one just short of short-leg but it’s all about survival and survive he does.
“Dan, Dan, I’m worried about you,” writes Robert Wilson. “That’s a stonker of a mood you’re in. Hangover? Too many Arnie films? What is it with Jennings? Not sure I’ve seen such an atmos of comfortless abnegation on the OBO of a morning. You sound like Martin Luther tacking the team sheet to the church door in Wittenberg. And we know how all that ended. Do you want me to sing you a song? I wrote one last year.”
23rd over: England 48-0 (Cook 25, Jennings 23) Huh, Umesh continues, which is a bit of a surprise after he got pulled to the fence twice in his last over and given Jadeja has got Cook five times in this series. Just a single to Jennings from this over.
22nd over: England 47-0 (Cook 25, Jennings 22) We’re back and it’s a change of angle for Ashwin. He comes over the wicket to Cook, who immediately cuts with greater disdain than timing and gets two. The only two runs of the over, as it happens.
21st over: England 45-0 (Cook 23, Jennings 22) Four to Cook, transforming as is his occasional wont into the violent destroyer, reaching for a short nothing ball outside off and pulling it well through midwicket. Jennings, meanwhile, shows a propensity for learning from his captain and when he gets the strike he does something similar, getting it behind square for another boundary. That’s drinks.
20th over: England 35-0 (Cook 18, Jennings 17) Apparently the first ball of this over is the 10th that has beaten the outside edge today. The third doesn’t beat the edge but rather takes it and drops just short of Kohli diving at slip. Cook celebrates his reprieve by taking two.
On Jennings, Bill Randall writes: “The guy is dropped into a test series without any preparation and scores a century and you want to drop him!? Cook Hameed Jennings Root Duckett Stokes Bairstow Moeen Woakes Broad Anderson. Also, let’s see what happens when this Indian team plays away at SA, Australia and england in the next 18 months. I seem to remember them losing badly when they last played there. Their batsmen and bowlers are really suited by the conditions in India and of course their experience in those conditions.”
19th over: England 33-0 (Cook 16, Jennings 17) Jennings wears a short ball on the shoulder. That was a very sharp bouncer from Yadav, clattering painfully from bone to helmet on the strokeless batsman. Oh grow up.
“Morning Dan,” er, wrote Brian Withington a fair while back now. “Any chance that ECB will contemplate settling a (small) class action for compensation for this series? Fragile hopes dashed, body clocks shattered, and even driven to following Australia matches contemporaneously in pursuit of elusive crumbs of schadenfreude? And that was just yesterday! Never mind Alistair (who I still support staunchly) I’m really not sure how much more of this I can be expected to take ... about one and a half sessions you reckon?” That’s how long I’m in for, because Tom Davies is due to take over then.
18th over: England 32-0 (Cook 15, Jennings 17) Ashwin now has a short-leg, silly point, slip and what we could argue all day over whether or not is a second slip or gully. Jennigns plays a couple of sweeps, the first picking out a fielder at square-leg and the second not connecting with a grubber.
17th over: England 32-0 (Cook 15, Jennings 17) Change of bowling but it’s more pace: Umesh is on for Ishant. He takes a comedy tumble first ball, going a over t, as my mum likes to call it, in his follow through. He actually recovered pretty gracefully, tumbling and getting back up in near enough one motion, in time to half appeal for lbw when Cook was thwacked on the thigh pad. The England captain then misses an attempted pull for the second time today.
Incidentally in the last over I of course meant to write that Jennings has played just two scoring shots today. That number has now gone up to three.
Most runs in a continent by visiting players:
2675 A COOK (Asia)*
2674 D Bradman (Eur)
2651 S Tendulkar (Aus)
2623 W Hammond (Aus)#INDvENG
16th over: England 30-0 (Cook 14, Jennings 16) Now there is a short-leg and Cook turns Ashwin’s first ball past him for a casually jogged single. Jennings, who has scored off just two balls today, edges short of slip then tries to release the pressure with a reverse-sweep. It’s stopped at gully though, who had just come in the previous ball.
KV Mukhandan writes: “Given the complete domination home sides are displaying these days, it is about time ICC considers trimming down potential matchless contests into two-test series. That will save us the agony of watching Cook and co going through the motions. England can similarly reciprocate when India tour them next.”
15th over: England 29-0 (Cook 13, Jennings 16) Cook took a single from the last ball of that over so retains the strike, but there is still no sign of Jadeja. There is half an appeal for a glove behind when Cook wafts a horribly uncontrolled attempt at a pull shot but the bat connected with naught but Chennai air. There’s really not a lot in this pitch for the tall seamer. Another single from the final ball.
14th over: England 28-0 (Cook 12, Jennings 16) A change? No, not yet despite those five runs off Ashwin’s last over. He creates a chance, getting one to loop up off Cook’s glove but – bizarrely – there is no short leg in place and Patel can’t reach it diving forward.
@DanLucas86 Admirable retort to "Remarkable" tweets from Jamie Cook. But I do wonder if we have about 4 number 6's in the side?
13th over: England 27-0 (Cook 11, Jennings 16) Just one from the over, knocked square on the leg-side by Cook. Other than that, neither an alarm nor a surprise.
12th over: England 26-0 (Cook 10, Jennings 16) Still no sign of Jadeja but this is, in fairness, brilliant from Ashwin. Cook is wrongly attributed a single when he misses a sweep and the ball comes off his pad, before Jennings sweeps beautifully to the fence behind square. Ashwin responds by beating him.
“‘It’s turning now’,” writes Ian Copestake, quoting the eighth over back to me. “Well, if you ever needed a phrase to sum up this Test series this is it. Looking forward to a new start, a clean slate and some Root surgery.” That’s Copestake’s cards on the table on the captaincy question.
11th over: England 21-0 (Cook 9, Jennings 12) Jennings is cramped for room and rapped on the gloves by a short one from Sharma, but said hands are soft enough and it drops safe. Next up he is tempted to hook, but quickly remembers there are two men in the deep for that very shot and drops his hands, and bat, out the way. That’s six of the 90 overs down for England and a second on the bounce that they have declined to score from.
10th over: England 21-0 (Cook 9, Jennings 12) This is very, very good from Ashwin, who pretty much has the England captain on toast out there. Another maiden, although to Cook’s credit he is only beaten on the outside edge once in this over. Jadeja has to come on soon, no?
“Dear Dan,” begins Robert Wilson. “As a simile for the state of being vanquished ‘ kicked, battered, bruised and beaten like a villain in Commando’ is many things. Most of them a betrayal of how you spent your cinephile evening. On things cricketish, I was delighted that they let Nair get his triple yesterday. Resoundingly the right call. Who knows how many numerate, indoorsy, geeky kids were permanently turned on to cricket yesterday? Though now that I come to think of it, that’s never been a demographic for which cricket has actually lacked.”
9th over: England 21-0 (Cook 9, Jennings 12) As was the case with just the final ball of his previous over, Ishant is round the wicket to Jennings and the tall opener gets what I think is just his second run in Test cricket against seam bowling from that angle. Ishant overpitches to Cook and gets driven beautifully to the extra cover boundary for the first four of the day.
The emails are flying in thick and fast now. Peter Rowntree writes: “Largely agree with your line-up Dan, except I would still reverse Mo and YJB i.e Moeen at 4 and YJB at 5. I think the other area of uncertainty now is with Jimmy Anderson and how his fitness goes in the next few months. There is a long lead in until the first Test in the summer and a chance perhaps, for some other bowlers to come through and get into the squad. In this series our bowling has been the big chasm between ourselves and India - so maybe the Currans could come into the reckoning; young Matt Fisher if he is now free from the illness that dogged him last year. Mark Wood of course, especially if he goes well in the north south games to be played in the UAE during March.”
8th over: England 15-0 (Cook 4, Jennings 11) It’s turning now. Cook is beaten outside his off-stump prodding forward, then slices an aerial drive that doesn’t carry to backward point. And then he’s dropped! Ashwin draws him forward with a beauty and finds the outside edge only for Patel’s gloves to turn to brass. That was an easy chance.
7th over: England 15-0 (Cook 4, Jennings 11) From the other end it’s Ishant Sharma. He’s got a short leg, mid-on and solitary slip for Cook, who fends his first ball down to third man for a single. Jennings is as interested in the rest as I am in reading Phil Collins’ new book.
@DanLucas86 your XI shows you haven't learnt much from this tour. All rounders batting far too high. Remarkable
@DanLucas86 you don't like what you see from Jennings? He scored a test 100 2 innings ago. Remarkable statement.
6th over: England 14-0 (Cook 3, Jennings 11) Ashwin will open the bowling to Jennings. I’d have gone with Umesh and Jadeja to start but then I haven’t led a team to being unbeaten in 18 Test matches. Jennings looks solid, driving only at one floated wide of off-stump and drilling it along the ground to the cover fielder. A nudge off his pads brings two runs.
“Hi Dan.” Hi, Saurabh Raye. “How do you motivate yourself to wake up at ungodly hours to watch your team not do well? Not that its an unfamiliar scenario to me as an Indian fan. Have a lifetime experience of this. 6th July might not see any new names, but might see Root as the captain. Also thanks to you and everyone on the OBO team.”
We are about to begin. Well, the teams are. You know what I meant.
@DanLucas86 would you bother to miss Jennings ?I would drop moeen who has a poor short ball immunity! and instead of Buttler some specialist
He might prove me wrong today but I don’t like what I see in Jennings. Besides, he’s only in as injury cover for Hameed so he’s first out the door.
That said, Trevor Bayliss hardly sounded full of confidence when it came to the question of Cook’s future as captain. Here’s Ali Martin on that very subject.
Related: India battering may decide Alastair Cook’s captaincy future, says Bayliss
For what it’s worth, England need another 270 runs to make India bat again. What it’s worth is not a lot though, so let us turn our minds to other matters. England’s next Test begins at Lord’s against South Africa on 6 July 2017 (!); how do they line up for that one? For my money:
Cook (capt)
Hameed
Root
Bairstow
Moeen
Stokes
Buttler (wkt)
Woakes
Rashid
Broad
Anderson
Morning folks. Four Tests and two innings over 23 days done, just three sessions to go. England have been kicked, battered, bruised and beaten like a villain in Commando over three Tests and 348 overs but they have, at least, survived the crucial five most recent overs of this series without damage. Another 90 and they can walk away feeling they have accomplished something on this most brutal tour to India.
India, having run up the highest innings total in their 507-match, 84-year history, as well as the biggest ever scored by any team against England in 139 years and 983 Tests, need 10 more wickets to make it 4-0 and make people on the internet angrier at Alastair Cook and Trevor Bayliss than they have been in their lives. England, and Cook, need to survive in more ways than one.
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