For the second time in the match, Indian bowlers displayed splendid spirit to scythe through the England top and middle order, but Kevin Pietersen trampled their effort and spirit with the kind of knock only he could play and directed the first Test to a favourable position for his team.
Pietersen's ninth Test hundred enabled England to reach 282 before getting bowled out minutes before tea. Having resumed at their overnight score of 77 for two, England owed their overall lead of 379 runs to Pietersen’s third hundred at this venue in his last four Tests.
Chasing 380, India were 137 for three at close with Dinesh Kaarthick making a doughty unbeaten fifty. India require a further 243 runs on the final day to win. It looks a tough target as their most successful chase at this venue is 136 for five in 1986. The overall highest chase here is 344 that the West Indies had managed in the 80s.
The early loss of top order, including skipper Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar — leg before victims to Chris Tremlett and Monty Panesar respectively — has only added more weight to the task.
But it was Pietersen, overnight 15, who pushed India into the predicament that they were facing now. There were two parts to his innings. First, the Hampshire batsmen concentrated on keeping his wicket intact when the Indian bowlers were on a roll and in the second part, post-lunch session to be precise, he exploded into action with those heavy duty shots that completely demoralised the opposition.
Pietersen's onslaught left them short of ideas about the length to be adopted against the marauding Englishman. In the company of wicketkeeper batsmen Matt Prior, Pietersen added 119 runs for the sixth wicket.
The partnership gave England the much-needed momentum besides taking the match away from the grasp of the Indians. Pietersen reached his hundred with a swat to the on-side off Anil Kumble that fetched him four runs. There was warm applause all around but Pietersen didn’t seem to hear all that as he was immersed in an emotional celebration — a loud roar, a high leap into the air and a punch in the air on his knees, amply illustrating the value he attached to the knock.
At the other end, Prior just needed to keep his end going and he did it with perfection, while notching up occasional boundaries to ease the pressure. It needed the experience of Zaheer Khan, who bowled a lively spell throughout the day, to cut short the bulging partnership as the left-arm paceman induced a thick outside edge from Prior for Mahendra Singh Dhoni to complete a fine tumbling catch behind the stumps.
Pietersen's vigil too soon came to end — he was the ninth man to be dismissed — when Rudra Pratap Singh disturbed his stumps. But by then the stand had served its purpose of placing the home side in a comfortable position.
They were not in such a position in the morning session when R P Singh came up with an incisive first spell. He was impressive while grabbing five wickets and but for Pietersen's knock, his performance could have been a far more important one from the Indian point of view.
The Uttar Pradesh left-arm pacer removed the hosts' skipper Michael Vaughan after the Yorkshireman threatened to produce a big one. Vaughan dragged an incoming delivery from Singh onto his stumps. Paul Collingwood was out in strange circumstances. The middle-order batsman tried to duck under a steeply climbing delivery from Singh, but the ball brushed his gloves en route to V V S Laxman at slips. Ian Bell started briskly, hitting a couple of boundaries, but he also dragged a Singh delivery onto the stumps while attempting a pull off Singh.
At 132 for five, India might have envisaged of chasing a manageable target, but Pietersen had other ideas.
SCORE BOARD
ENGLAND (I Innings): 298
INDIA (I Innings): 201
ENGLAND (II Innings):
Strauss c Tendulkar b Zaheer 18
(47m, 41b, 3x4)
Cook lbw Zaheer 17
(55m, 31b, 3x4)
Vaughan b R P Singh 30
(114m, 75b, 5x4)
Pietersen b R P Singh 134
(249m, 213b, 14x4, 1x6)
C’wood c Laxman b R P Singh 4
(7m, 3b, 1x4)
Bell b R P Singh 9
(21m, 15b, 2x4)
Prior c Dhoni b Zaheer 42
(108m, 61b, 5x4)
Tremlett b Zaheer 0
(1m, 1b)
Sidebottom c Dravid b Kumble 9
(13m, 11b, 2x4)
Panesar lbw R P Singh 3
(28m, 17b)
Anderson (not out) 4
(5m, 3b)
Extras (B-9, LB-1, W-2) 12
Total (all out in 78.3 overs) 282
Fall of wickets: 1-40 (Strauss), 2-43 (Cook), 3-102 (Vaughan), 4-114 (Collingwood), 5-132 (Bell), 6-251 (Prior), 7-251 (Tremlett), 8-266 (Sidebottom), 9-275 (Pietersen).
Bowling: Zaheer 28-6-79-4 (w-1), Sreesanth 16-3-62-0, R P Singh 16.3-3-59-5 (w-1), Anil Kumble 17-3-70-1, Sachin Tendulkar 1-0-2-0.
INDIA (II Innings):
Jaffer c Pietersen b Anderson 8
(37m, 32b)
Kaarthick (batting) 56
(180m, 112b, 7x4)
Dravid lbw Tremlett 9
(18m, 12b, 2x4)
Tendulkar lbw Panesar 16
(41m, 35b, 3x4)
Ganguly (batting) 36
(68m, 55b, 5x4)
Extras (B-8, LB-3, NB-1) 12
Total (for 3 wkts in 41 overs) 137
Fall of wickets: 1-38 (Jaffer), 2-55 (Dravid), 3-84 (Tendulkar).
Bowling: Sidebottom 6-1-20-0, Anderson 12-3-36-1, Tremlett 10-1-29-1 (nb-1), Panesar 13-2-41-1.