Alastair Cook and Moeen Ali helped England sail through the first two sessions at The Oval on day one, taking them to 123-1 at tea, before the Indians clawed back in the evening to make it 198-7 at stumps.
Before the fifth Test, India vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane, who has faced more balls than any English batsman in the series, had emphasised on the need to leave balls for longer periods of time in Test cricket.
“There’s nothing worse than going out and not contributing after all the fuss about the week. I was probably just as nervous as I was anyway,” said Cook.
“Everyone says, ‘just enjoy it, it doesn’t matter how many runs you get’, but actually that’s never the case. There’s never a game of cricket ever like that. It was nice to get off the mark, that was the most important thing first.”
