England's attack struggled to make inroads into India's powerful batting line-up as the two sides began a battle of attrition on the opening day of the third Test at Headingley.
Having won the toss and decided to bat, India suffered an early setback to their hopes of posting a competitive total with opener Virender Sehwag falling in the seventh over of the day to leave them struggling on 15 for one.
But that was England's only success of the morning session with India stubbornly resisting all their further efforts to reach 58 for one by lunch on the opening day with Rahul Dravid and new opener Sanjay Bangar adding only 43 runs in 21 overs up to the interval.
They have since moved to 85 for 1.
India enjoyed only 24 scoring shots in the opening two hours play off 174 deliveries, including only four boundaries, in a dull but effective attempt to ensure they did not suffer any further setbacks before the interval.
Those tactics led to an increasingly dull opening session for a disappointing first day crowd with Headingley only half-full for the crucial Test in the four-match series.
It was in stark contrast to the start of the match with India deciding to bat first in cloudy conditions which were perfect for Matthew Hoggard, bowling from the Kirkstall Lane End, to try to swing the ball.
He succeeded early on with Sehwag playing and missing outside off-stump, but making amends by cutting Andrew Caddick through point for four to get off the mark in typically extravagant fashion.
His aggressive tactics were quickly exposed as being too risky on this surface, though, when he attempted a similar shot against Hoggard four overs later and instead edged to Andrew Flintoff at second slip.
Perhaps influenced by the manner of Sehwag's demise, Bangar adopted the opposite tactics after being recalled to the side to replace Wasim Jaffer, who was dropped after scoring only 59 runs in his four previous innings in the series.
He finished the morning session unbeaten on 22 after facing 84 deliveries while Dravid had progressed to 17 after 88 minutes at the crease.