London, Sep 8 (IANS) Alastair Cook missed out on a century as England threw away a decent start to huff and puff their way to 198/7 and Indian bowlers came up with a captivating Day 1 performance in the fifth Test here on Friday.
Former England skipper Cook, who called time on his illustrious career before the final rubber, top-scored for the hosts with a patient 71 off 190 balls before he was removed by Jasprit Bumrah.
Joe Root had won the toss and elected to bat first.
All-rounder Moeen Ali, batting at No.3, got to a dogged 50 off 170 balls as well but India came roaring back in the third session after struggling to get wickets in the first two, to reduce England to 198 from 60/0 at one stage.
Pace spearhead Ishant returned best figures of 3/28, while Ravindra Jadeja -- playing his first match of the series -- and Bumrah grabbed two wickets each conceding 57 and 41 runs, respectively.
At stumps, Jos Buttler (11 batting) and Adil Rashid (4 batting) were at the crease.
Cook looked good for his 71, playing some glorious cover drives and pulling and hooking with elan to roll back time. Along with Keaton Jennings (23), the pair had brought up the highest opening stand in the series.
But Jadeja broke the association with a wicket-to-wicket delivery that flew to leg slip off the face of the bat for KL Rahul to take the catch.
Cook then tried to stitch another partnership with Moeen but Bumrah got the ball to jag back in and disturb the stumps.
Bumrah sent captain Root back in his next delivery with Ishant then dismissing wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow (0) in the next over to reduce the hosts to 134-4.
Moeen tried to steady the ship but Ishant returned to take two wickets in three balls in the 83rd over as England further slipped to 181 for 7.
The hosts lost six wickets for 58 runs post tea to collapse from 133-1 to 181-7.
Ishant got Bairstow out caught behind and Ben Stokes (11) and Ali put on 37 runs for the fifth wicket before Jadeja began the slide again trapping Stokes lbw.
Ali nicked Ishant behind after a resolute show with Sam Curran (0) dismissed for a duck, the batsman edging behind as he looked to leave the ball.
Shami bowled a threatening spell, but Jos Buttler (11) and Adil Rashid (4) survived till the end somehow.
Earlier, England were cruising at 123/1 at tea with Cook and Moeen looking good at the crease.
Cook, playing in his final international match, registered his 57th fifty in his 161st Test.
The 32-year-old left-hander, who resumed the session with an individual score of 37, got a reprieve at the same score. An away-swigning delivery from paceman Ishant Sharma was poked by Cook but Ajinkya Rahane dropped it at gully in the 31st over.
In the following over, Moeen too got a reprieve while batting on a personal score of 2. The left-hander got a thick edge off Jasprit Bumrah and captain Virat Kohli dropped the left-hander at third slip.
Cook and Moeen, then, batted with strong defences and played risk-free cricket to see off the session. They waited for the loose deliveries to score runs.
In the first session, it was all England as the home crowd, baying for a Cook show, were satiated.
Brief scores: England 1st innings 198/7 (Alastair Cook 71, Moeen Ali 50; Ishant Sharma 3/28, Jasprit Bumrah 2/41, R. Jadeja 2/57)
