It needed a huge slice of luck for India to reach the brink of a victory that at one stage appeared to be veering away from them. Michael Vaughan was well on course to playing a defining innings -- his 17th Test hundred was still remarkable till it lasted -- but the ball trickled on to his stumps via his pads after taking the inside edge of his bat to signal the end of England's resistance.
Fittingly, the man who brought India that piece of fortune was Zaheer Khan, who toiled manfully the whole day on a pitch that, barring variable bounce, offered nothing much to the bowlers. The left-arm paceman, who grabbed a deserving five-wicket haul, shook England very soon, dismissing their last recognised batsman, Ian Bell. His efforts curbed the home side to 355, setting India a target of 73 runs for victory. India were 10 for no loss at close.
Exit Pietersen
Forgetting Rudra Pratap Singh's contribution will be gross injustice to the persevering youngster. Till midway through the post-lunch session, Singh had bowled nine innocuous overs, but his tenth bore a crucial impact on the game. A ball that swung in massively rapped Kevin Pietersen's pads, and umpire Simon Taufel had little hesitation in upholding the appeal. The dismissal broke the back of England's ambitions, helping India gain a solid foothold.
Vaughan played a perfect Test match innings to frustrate the Indians. England needed to score runs to stay alive in this match as attempting to play a defensive game would have been fatal. The Yorkshireman realised this fact and batted accordingly.
Vaughan is a delightful batsman to watch when on song, and this day was no exception. A superb judge of length, Vaughan pulled with ease when the bowlers banged it short and played classic drives through covers when they offered him width to free his arms.
The enormity of the situation would have bogged down any batsman, but Vaughan, who completed 5,000 runs in Test cricket, looked at ease while displaying a wide array of strokes. Vaughan and Paul Collingwood added 116 runs for the fourth wicket, England's best in this Test. The most noteworthy feature of his batting was the way he neutralised Anil Kumble. The veteran leg-spinner, a master at exploiting pitches with varied bounce as the one here, was vital to India's endeavours to prise out the English batsmen. He tried all the tricks in his arsenal to unsettle Vaughan, but the latter displayed supreme temperament and footwork to deny the Bangalorean success. Kumble came back well to take some late wickets.
Kumble conceded more than four runs per over in the 12 overs till tea. That meant the burden of shouldering the Indian attack fell on Zaheer, and  the left-arm paceman never flinched from his responsibility.
In the early part of his innings, Vaughan was all at sea against Zaheer as he struggled to come to terms with the swing and pace the Mumbaikar generated off the pitch. It was Zaheer who brought India their first breakthrough of the day when he jettisoned Alistair Cook early in the morning session, trapping the left-hander in front with a delivery that straightened after pitching.
But a barren period followed for India as Andrew Strauss and Vaughan pitched tent in the middle to thwart the visitors' ambitions of quick wickets.
Strauss came up with some good strokes on either side of the park and delightful clips off the legs off S Sreesanth on his way to a half-century. Sreesanth again proved a disappointment as he struggled for rhythm and control over swing.

ENGLAND (I Innings): 198
INDIA (I Innings): 481
ENGLAND (II Innings, O/n: 43/0):
Strauss c Dhoni b Zaheer 55
(198m, 133b, 6x4)
Cook lbw Zaheer 23
(83m, 50b, 1x4)
Vaughan b Zaheer 124
(280m, 193b, 18x4)
Pietersen lbw RP Singh 19
(46m, 35b, 2x4)
C’wood c K’thick b Zaheer 63
(192m, 133b, 7x4)
Bell lbw Zaheer 0
(1m, 2b)
Prior b RP Singh 7
(41m, 23b, 1x4)
Tremlett c RP Singh b Kumble 5
(33m, 18b, 1x4)
Sidebottom (not out) 25
(31m, 26b, 4x4)
Panesar c Kaarthick b Kumble 4
(10m, 8b, 1x4)
Anderson b Kumble 1
(15m, 9b)
Extras (LB-6, B-7, W-9, NB-7) 29
Total (all out, 104 overs) 355
Fall of wickets: 1-49 (Cook), 2-130 (Strauss), 3-175 (Pietersen), 4-287 (Vaughan), 5-287 (Bell), 6-304 (Prior), 7-323 (Collingwood), 8-329 (Tremlett), 9-333 (Panesar).
Bowling: Zaheer 27-10-75-5 (w-1), Sreesanth 21-2-60-0 (w-7, nb-5), RP Singh 18-6-52-2 (w-1), Ku-mble 25-2-104-3 (nb-2), Ganguly 6-0-22-0, Tendulkar 7-0-29-0.
INDIA (II Innings):
Kaarthick (batting) 6
(11m, 13b, 1x4)
Jaffer (batting) 3
(11m, 5b)
Extras (LB-1) 1
Total (for no loss, 3 overs) 10
Bowling: Anderson 2-1-6-0, Sidebottom 1-0-3-0.