Despite Early blows, Joe Root and Moeen Ali Stabilized England Innings

England tour of India
5th Test: India v England
Date & Venue: 16-20 December, 2016, M A Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai

Day 1: Welcome guys to Chennai for the 5^th and final test. Both the teams made changes in their squads.  Liam Dawson and Stuart Broad come in for James Anderson and Chris Wokes for the England. Jayant Yadav Bhuvbeshwar Kumar will not play as Ishant Sharma and Amit Mishra comes in as Jayant Yadav has grumble in right thigh and Bhuvi has been replaced.

England again won the toss and without hesitation chose to bat first. Skipper Alastair Cook and Keaton Jennings opened the innings and not got the start as they were looking for; Keaton Jennings was caught behind the wickets in 6^th over bowling Ishant Sharma;Joe Root was next batsmen to crease.

Virat Kholi brough Ravinder Jadeja in the 9^th over of the innings as pitch was giving signs of turn and that too give dividends as Jadeja again picked the wicket of Alastair Cook in 13^th over caught by Kholi on 10 runs but before getting out he completed his 11000 test runs. England was in deep trouble as they were reduced to 21/2.

Joe Root and Moeen Ali controlled the cyclone and put on the vital partnership to revive the innings for the hosts. Both jagged up their respective half-century post lunch and were also tickling runs at a quick pace.Root’s half-century meant he has now hit at least 50 plus score in each 11 consecutive Tests against India in the longest format of the game. But Ravindra Jadeja broke the treacherous looking partnership by dismissing Vice-captain Joe Root for 88; as the duo added 146 runs for the 3^rd wicket.

Johnny Bairstow joined Moeen Ali at the crease and started hitting big shorts in his early innings. He was playing the natural game and that too at the good pace; Just as right-hander was about to complete his half century Ravinder Jadeja got the valued wicket of Bairstow 49.But Moeen Ali was still looking good and finished his 5^th Test century and 2^nd of this series against India.

Jadeja was the only bowler to pick 3 wickets and 1 wicket was picked by Ishant Sharma. England finished the day on 284/4 with dangerous Moeen Ali still on the crease at 105 not out and Ben Stokes on 5 not out on the other end. India need to re plan their strategy and need to look what mistakes they did; otherwise it will be really difficult for India. If England managed to post score over 400 than India will be in danger because pitch will assist spinners a lot in coming days.