The England openers pushed up the pace of scoring a bit in the later half of morning session but they took 88 minutes and 19 overs to reach their 50 partnership. Both miscued their pull shots on few occasions but no damage was done.

Harbhajan Singh provided the breakthrough midway through the post lunch session by getting the scalp of Cook much to the delight of his teammates.

Cook came up with a determined batting display before losing his composure to a tossed up delivery from Harbhajan Singh and return to the hut. Before his departure, however, Cook had added 118 runs off 40 overs with his opening partner Strauss.

Cook was out while playing across a spinning delivery to hole out to Zaheer at mid on region two overs before drinks break. Cook had faced 116 balls for his 15th Test fifty and stayed at the crease for 157 minutes.

Strauss did not allow the fall of Cook's wicket to distract his focus and with Bell kept the scoreboard ticking, often deploying the sweep shot against the spinners.

Barring a couple of bat-pad appeals, which were turned down by umpire Daryl Harper, the proceedings were bereft of any action in the second half of the post-lunch session as England hoisted 150 in 51.4 overs with Strauss moving into the 90s.

The complexion of the game changed in the last session with Zaheer and Ishant managing to get the reverse swing going. The Indians claimed four wickets for 65 runs in the session.

... contd.