In the eyes of most observers, England had lost this match before it had even begun. Having been felled by spin on a seaming pitch at Mohali, England's hopes of surviving long on a spinning wicket at Ahmedabad seemed slim to none. They had fortified their squad with Ashley Giles, a crocked spinner heinously short on match practice, while India were back to full strength with Javagal Srinath and Virender Sehwag. Sehwag was down to bat at number seven, the position where England have Craig White, Test batting average 17.71. The situation was dire. Then, almost impossibly, it got worse. Graham Thorpe, the most accomplished of a paltry five specialist batsmen, flew home citing personal problems. When Nasser Hussain went out for his ritual losing of the toss, his side's prospects were laughable. But Nasser didn't lose it, and nobody laughed as England built on his heroic toss victory. On most days a score of 277 for 6 would be modest at best, but today it represented something of a triumph. Indeed, had England not fallen foul of Ian Robinson's trigger-happy finger they could have been right on top.

The chief architect of their relative success was Marcus Trescothick, who has now scored more than twice as many runs as any other Englishman in the series, yet his innings still felt frustratingly curtailed. Largely untroubled by the bowlers, Trescothick was dangerously flighty nonetheless - on another day he would have perished three times before reaching 50. His propensity for getting out when set has not gone away. Here he slashed randomly at Harbhajan's sharply spinning first ball, skyed a Mohali-style pull, and was all but lbw, sweeping cluelessly at Anil Kumble, in the final over of the morning. Although he showed composure after lunch, advancing delicately at the spinners and sweeping Harbhajan for a memorable six, his demise in the over after tea was all too typical. Having endured an unpleasant 20-minute tea-break on 99, the red mist descended fatally as Trescothick strained at a wide ball from Kumble and nicked a catch behind. It seems churlish to criticise England's best batsman, but a bowler is yet to get him out in the series, and his side needed a big century.

At least Trescothick could have no qualms about the validity of his dismissal. England were poised for a fine day's work when Ian Robinson, persona non-grata of the umpiring world, sidled shiftily onto centre stage like a pantomime villain. He first dispatched a splay-footed Hussain lbw to a delivery that was missing leg stump by a furlong, and then sent a purse-lipped Vaughan back, caught off his knee-roll. After the competence and calm of Messrs Bucknor and Venkat in the first Test, the series (and England) could do without such glaring gaffes.

With the score on a tremulous 176 for 4, the stage was set for a dreary afternoon collapse: Andy Flintoff performed his part perfectly, propping a catch to silly point second ball, and there seemed no way back. But the steelier spirit that England showed all day shone through as the light faded. Mark Ramprakash, Craig White and, pleasingly, Jamie Foster all responded vigorously to the crisis as the day closed with honours just about even.

The dismissals of Butcher, Flintoff and Ramprakash confirmed that England still have much to learn about conquering Kumble, but they played Harbhajan well, going back and waiting for the slow, Pakistan-like turn. If White can continue to reprise the role he played there, and Foster can prolong his perky cameo, England can still post a defensible first-innings total, and a series that was lost this morning can still be saved.

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