England pushed the hosts all the way on the final afternoon as the first test in Rajkot finished as a draw.
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| Alistair Cook celebrates his record fifth 100 in India. Credit - SportsKeeda |
Requiring 310 from 49 overs, the tourists had the Indians 71-4, before Virat Kohli and Ravi Ashwin, then Ravi Jadeja held out until Alistair Cook called time on the game at 172-6.
Cook had earlier made 130 as his side declared on 260-3, with debutant Haseeb Hameed being dismissed for 82, as the opening partnership was broken at 180. This also made it the highest opening partnership for England in India, the previous best being 178 in 1984-85 between Tim Robinson and Graeme Fowler.
By the time Cook was caught at long on by Jadeja, England led by 309 and left themselves 49 overs to take 10 Indian wickets to force an unlikely win.
The performance of Hameed and that of Adil Rashid who took 7 wickets in the match have started to answer some long-winded questions about the England side, with Hameed's composed 82 signaling a potential long-term opener for Cook at the 10th time of asking.
The tourists outperformed India for vast portions of the match and became the first team to take a first innings lead over the hosts for four years after their 537.
Cook's second innings ton, his 30th and fifth in India gave him the most hundreds by an overseas batsman in the country, It also took him fourth on the list of highest run scorers in India by overseas batsmen, only 25 from overtaking Gordon Greenidge but miles from Clive Lloyds' 1359 for now.
England will go into the second test at Visakhapatnam with some mild confidence, proving that they can outplay the world's number one side in their own backyard for long spells of a game, but knowing tougher tests are to come in this five test series.
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