Cricket-England 68-2 after Jadeja makes Cook his bunny

CHENNAI, Dec 16 ( Reuters) - England captain Alastair Cook continued his struggle against Ravindra Jadeja as the tourists reached 68 for two at lunch on the opening day of the fifth and final test against India on Friday.

With India having already taken an unassailable 3-0 lead in the series, England went into the match seeking to salvage some pride but that determination did not reflect in the casual shotmaking by their top order after Cook opted to bat.

Not for the first time in the series, Joe Root found himself staring at a rebuilding job and England's batting mainstay was unbeaten on 44 at the break, having hit eight boundaries in his composed knock.

Moeen Ali was lucky to be batting alongside him on seven not out at the break at the MA Chidambaram Stadium after Lokesh Rahul had failed to pouch his casual flick at midwicket off Jadeja.

Back in the squad replacing Bhuvneshwar Kumar, paceman Ishant Sharma drew first blood when he induced Keaton Jennings into driving a wide delivery and Parthiv Patel collected the edge behind the stumps to dismiss the young opener for one.

Cook took two runs off Umesh Yadav's first ball to reach 11,000 runs in test cricket but, as has often been the case in the series, looked completely at sea against Jadeja's tricky left-arm spin.

The situation merited discretion but the England skipper lunged outside off-stump to edge the ball to Virat Kohli at slip for 10, falling to Jadeja for the fifth time in the series.

Moeen had yet to open his account when the bearded left-hander lazily flicked Jadeja to midwicket where Rahul misjudged his jump and let the ball burst through his closing hands. (Reporting by Amlan Chakraborty in New Delhi; editing by Nick Mulvenney)