Follow-on looming for sorry England

Having battled for most of the third day at the Oval to put themselves in a promising position, England looked on course to at least save the humiliation of the follow on having watched India pile up a commanding 664 during the opening two days.

Comfortably placed on 288 for five with Paul Collingwood and Ian Bell having forged a crucial 86-run stand when the new ball was taken, England lost four wickets for 17 runs in 45 balls and finished on 326 for nine, still trailing by 338 runs and a further 139 from making India bat again.

England knew they faced a tough task from the start after they resumed the third morning trailing by a staggering 640 runs on 24 for one, but were given an early boost to their task with Alastair Cook being dropped twice in the first hour of play.

But England's attempts to match India's impressive batting performance in a Test they must win to preserve an unbeaten home Test series run stretching back to 2001 were undermined twice with untimely wickets shortly before intervals.

Left-hander Cook was the first to fall after battling for over two hours for his 61 but attempted to steer Kumble off his legs and only succeeded in getting a leading edge off the back of his bat to mid-off. But losing Michael Vaughan in Kumble's next over - the last before lunch - was a killer blow to England's hopes of reaching parity at least with the England captain failing to read the googly and giving a return catch off the inside edge.

England once again rebuilt with Kevin Pietersen teaming up with Collingwood in a determined 78-run stand which served to increase India's frustration but just before tea the unlikely figure of Sachin Tendulkar struck with his first ball by tempting Pietersen into driving at a fiercely-spinning leg-break and edging to Dravid at slip shortly before tea.

The key stage of the day, however, was always going to be once Dravid took the new ball and, just like they did at Trent Bridge, England failed to pass the test.

Durham all-rounder Collingwood was unlucky to be given out lbw to the sixth delivery with the new ball from Sreesanth which appeared to be missing leg stump, but England also contributed to their own downfall with Ian Bell chasing a wide delivery from left-arm seamer Zaheer Khan five overs later and edging behind to wicketkeeper Mahendra Dhoni.

After Ryan Sidebottom and Matt Prior also fell, last man Monty Panesar held out for the remaining six overs as India pushed for the wicket which would take them one step closer to their first series win in England since 1986.