Close India 357 and 99 for 2 (Tendulkar 56*, Dravid 34*) and trail England 617 (Vaughan 197, Stewart 87, White 94*) by 161 runs
Scorecard

On the day when the Gunners of North London won the curtain-raiser to the English football season, England's batsmen – most notably Craig White with a sparkling unbeaten 94 and Alec Stewart with a chancy 87 - fired on all cylinders to obliterate India's chances of squaring the four-Test series at Trent Bridge. When bad light ended play just after 7pm local time, India were still 161 runs in arrears, with all their hopes resting on the Sachin Tendulkar-Rahul Dravid partnership. Tendulkar, after his circumspect approach in previous innings, decided that aggression was the only way forward and he batted beautifully to give India a glimmer of hope at the end of a miserable day.

The strokes poured off Tendulkar's blade quicker than the arrows from Robin Hood's quiver. He started with a powerful cut for four off Andrew Flintoff and a superb off-drive off Matthew Hoggard. There were some gorgeous drives through cover and two delectable straight-drives off Hoggard as he raced to his first half-century of the series in just 44 balls, his footwork decisive and shot selection almost immaculate. Dravid did his bit quietly and unobtrusively, with deft deflections to the fine-leg boundary and some fine square-drives. It served to alleviate some of the gloom in the Indian camp after a bowling performance that was too low for zero.

England batted with admirable enterprise in the morning and though Zaheer Khan raised hopes of a revival with two wickets in an over before lunch, those evaporated as White, Dominic Cork and England's latest batting hero, Hoggard, piled on the runs, and the misery.

For their part, the bowling was of such a charitable nature that Mother Teresa herself would have approved. The occasional good delivery was routinely followed by a rank long hop or a gift offering down the legside and to their credit, the English batsmen rarely missed out. In a town made famous by an archer's eye for the target, the bowlers blundered around like kids playing Blind Man's Buff. Indian cricket has had many low points when touring abroad, but the limp and lifeless display today surely has pride of place in any gallery of horrors. By the time Harmison holed out to point on the stroke of tea, White had galloped to 94 and England to 617. His 103-run partnership with Hoggard was the final humiliation for an Indian side that looked clueless in the middle. They had come together after Cork's dismissal for 31– popping up a delivery from Harbhajan Singh to the right of Jaffer at forward short-leg (493 for 8). But if India thought the leather hunt was over, there were in for a rude awakening.

Hoggard defended stoutly at first, but emboldened by some dazzling strokeplay from White, he opened out with shots of his own, including fetching Harbhajan from outside off stump to the square-leg boundary. By the time he was dismissed for 32, edging one to Dravid's left at first slip off Nehra, India were roast beef. White, undeterred by either the poor light or the batting limitations of Harmison, thumped Harbhajan back over his head for six, before cutting past point for four more. Sadly for him though, Harmison couldn't stick around long enough.

The morning had been dominated by Stewart's 87, which combined liberal doses of luck with a touch of class. It was no one-man show though, as Andrew Flintoff, Cork and White all took advantage of bowling that was maddeningly inconsistent. Ganguly's tactics early on were mystifying, with the new ball kept in cold storage for half an hour. When it was taken, ten overs after it was due, Ajit Agarkar was entrusted with it. Stewart immediately nicked one in the direction of third slip where Virender Sehwag claimed the catch. Stewart stood his ground and slow-motion replays showed that the ball had been dug out of the turf.

Stewart, who passed Michael Atherton to move into fourth place on the all-time England runmakers' list, got to 50 with an edge past the keeper. Time and again, the Indians strayed onto the pads, allowing him to fine-tune the flick off the pads to the rope. Flintoff was hardly idle and gave the crowd enough glimpses of his clean hitting ability. A short ball from Nehra was summarily dispatched through midwicket and when Agarkar pitched too wide outside off stump, he played two superb drives through cover.

India had no answers to Stewart's schizoid batting display - a French cut off Nehra was followed by a magnificent on-drive and he twice creamed Agarkar through midwicket. They had almost given up the ghost and every other spirit when Zaheer struck. Flintoff, who made 33, was cut in two by one that moved back, kept low and crashed into the stumps (432 for 6). Moments later, Stewart followed, the ball pitching just back of a length and keeping just as low as the one that castled Flintoff (433 for 7).

But if India harboured ambitions of a quick snip of the tail, Cork - batting with a crocked knee – and White had other ideas. By session's end, England had added 127 runs for the loss of just two wickets, and hopes of an Indian victory had galloped out of sight over the horizon. Even Tendulkar-inspired heroics on the morrow won't alter that reality.

Dileep Premachandran is assistant editor of Wisden.com in India.

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