A superb unbeaten 116 from Yorkshire all-rounder Tim Bresnan guided England Lions to 379-8 after the opening day of the tour game with India at Chelmsford. 
The 22-year-old hit 15 fours and a six in his second first-class century.
He shared 129 in 31 overs with Stuart Broad, who added 50 to halt a slide in which three wickets fell for 11 runs.
After skipper Andrew Strauss was clean bowled for one by Zaheer Khan in the fifth over, Kent opener Joe Denly made an impressive 83 containing 16 fours.
Strauss won the toss and elected to bat in cloudy conditions, on a ground where Essex and Nottinghamshire accumulated almost 1500 runs in two innings in the last match.
India were led by Sachin Tendulkar with Test captain Rahul Dravid rested due to a calf injury.
Strauss looked out of sorts from the start, however, and just a single from 17 balls before his off-stump was sent spiralling out of the ground did little for his confidence ahead of the first Test against the tourists starting at Lord's on 19 July.
Shah, who enjoyed a successful return to England's one-day side against the West Indies, hit two fours in his 11, but he went at a short ball from Shantha Sreesanth and found the hands of Zaheer running around at fine-leg.
Playing in just his 13th first-class match, Denly caught the eye with some attractive drives, smashing five boundaries in a single over from Zaheer.
The 21-year-old Kent opener took just 49 balls to reach his half-century and continued to make hay with 76 runs in the morning session.
South-African born Warwickshire batsman Jonathan Trott, who made his England debut against the West Indies in the recent Twenty20 series, played a more reserved innings in support and reached 25 by lunch.
Denly was not so fluent after the interval, with the introduction of Ramesh Powar's spin, and a charge down the wicket saw him comfortably stumped by Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Zaheer then found his rhythm and tempted Trott into driving at a ball outside off-stump, the edge caught at waist height by Sourav Ganguly at first slip.
Two wickets then fell in six deliveries as India looked to wrap up the innings.
First wicket-keeper Tim Ambrose (4) got a feather of a top-edge trying to drive Zaheer square, the catch taken by Dhoni, then Yorkshire teenager Adil Rashid offered Powar an easy return catch without scoring.
Essex all-rounder Ravi Bopara helped to rescue the situation with Bresnan, who launched Powar for the only six of the day over mid-wicket.
Bopara shared 40 in 10 overs with Bresnan before his attractive innings of 29 containing four fours was ended in the final over before tea.
Tendulkar brought himself into the attack and with his fifth ball tempted 22-year-old Bopara to push a sharp catch off the face of the bat to short-leg.
Broad took advantage of two reprieves early in his innings to justify his promise as a batsman with some clean hitting until spooing a low catch to point. Having moved into the 90s with two fours in three balls, Bresnan passed three figures with three boundaries in an over from Zaheer.
India's cause was not helped by rangy teenage seamer Ishant Sharma, who sent down a total of 15 no-balls in a troublesome 12-over spell.
England captain Strauss was delighted his young batsmen had got the team out of an awkward situation on the opening day.
"I thought we showed a lot of character in that final session, hopefully we can build on that," he said.
Of centurion Bresnan he said: "He has made some useful scores for Yorkshire and he got stuck in."
Strauss was also delighted with opening partner Denly, aged only 21.
"He really took the game to them and it's good to see a guy who hasn't played at this level before play with no fear," the skipper said. "This is a showcase even under a little bit more pressure than you have in a normal county game. Joe took it to them and has come out of it with a great deal of credit."
Strauss, who made only one half century in the Test series against the West Indies, admitted that his form was a concern, but was confident he would soon be back in the runs.
"The more runs I can get before the Test match the better and another low score wouldn't be ideal," he said.
