Chennai: Spinner Ravindra Jadeja struck thrice to bring the spring back in India's steps as England struggled to 167 for four in the fifth and final cricket Test here today.

Left-arm spinner Jadeja first cut short Alastair Cook's stay at the crease when he was one shy of a half century, followed that with the dismissal of Keaton Jennings and then sent back Joe Root to leave England at a spot of bother at 126 for three.

The situation got worse for the visitors when they lost Jonny Bairstow, sent back by a Ishant Sharma, who looked pretty sharp and thereafter tested Ben Stokes with deliveries that got off the wicket.

At tea, first-innings centurion Moeen Ali and Stokes were batting on 32 and 13 respectively, cutting down the deficit to 115 runs with six wickets remaining.

Jadeja, who pulled off a brilliant catch at midwicket to pull the curtains on Bairstow's brief stay in the middle, had impressive figures of 3/38 before the start of the final session.

Moeen and Stokes' partnership had consumed 12 overs by tea, and will have settled English nerves a bit.

Even though the hosts looked threatening, England took solace from the fact that the pitch remained pretty flat and could hope to avoid a 0-4 drubbing even if India had set ultra attacking field placements.

The first wicket came when Cook, like he often does, shuffled across too much and ended up giving a catch at leg slip.

Jennings offered a return catch to Jadeja in a soft dismissal, while Root was out lbw after he went for a sweep and failed to connect.

Virat Kohli went for a review after the on field umpire thought otherwise, and the India skipper was right as replays showed the full ball hitting the leg stump.

Then Bairstow flicked one towards deep midwicket and an agile Jadeja too a great catch running backwards.