England captain Alastair Cook has fallen agonisingly short of ending his barren spell without a Test hundred as he made 95 against India at Southampton.

Cook, after winning the toss on the first day of the third Test, was five runs shy of his first hundred in 28 innings at this level when he got a bottom edge trying to pull-sweep left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja and was caught behind by opposing captain and India wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

In all Cook, faced 231 balls, including nine fours and batted for 10 minutes short of five hours.

He received a standing ovation from the crowd after South Africa umpire Marais Erasmus raised his finger, with spectators having shown their support for the under-fire Cook by earlier giving him a standing ovation when he reached fifty.

However, the 29-year-old should have been out for 15 when he edged India debutant paceman Pankaj Singh only for third slip Jadeja to drop the catch.

The last of Cook’s England record 25 Test hundreds was against New Zealand at Headingley in May last year.

Since then, he has scored 733 Test runs in 28 innings at an average of just over 26, a run that has coincided with England not winning their last 10 Tests – their worst winless sequence for 21 years.

Six ex-England skippers have said Cook should resign the captaincy to rediscover his form with the bat.