Strauss shed some rust against a bowling attack that bowled a full length to him. He eased into his drives and made a determined effort to hang in there. The ball did beat his bat occasionally but he overcame the jitters with clean drives either side of the wicket. After lunch, he brought out his flowing drives and reached his fifty with a clean strike down the ground, one that had the non-striker running for cover. He fell trying to sweep an offbreak from Ramesh Powar but his 155-minute stay at the crease would no doubt boost his confidence ahead of the Lord's Test, in three days' time. Shah too was fluent in his stay and set himself up for a big one.

India's bowlers struggled on a featherbed of a pitch and unlike in the first innings, struggled to make early inroads. Zaheer Khan and Sreesanth pitched the ball up but were regularly driven down the ground and Ishant Sharma's no-ball malady continued. They will only be too happy if the light further deteriorates and the umpires call off play.

Earlier, Stuart Broad had brought the Indian innings to a close at 383 on the final day of the three-day game at Chelmsford.

Broad celebrated his call-up to the England Test side with a five-for, taking all three wickets that fell this morning. He was into his stride straight away and struck twice in his third over, inducing edges from Zaheer Khan and Sreesanth. He was at the receiving end of Dhoni's violent swishes; one swat down the ground nearly injured him before running away for four, but eventually uprooted his off stump. Dhoni, however, managed some useful practice ahead of the first Test, scoring 84-ball 76 in an innings that included seven fours and two sixes.