India in control after collapse

The tourists' hopes of seizing victory at the PCA Stadium appeared to have ended with the loss of Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff in the final two overs of last night to leave England trailing by 171 runs on 282 for six.

But when they resumed the fourth morning they were still hopeful they could resist long enough to deny them the victory which would seal a 2-0 series triumph, but instead collapsed to 302 all out in just 44 minutes this morning to concede a massive 151-run first innings deficit.

By lunch India had increased that advantage and raced to nine without loss in the two overs available before the interval to leave the tourists facing a desperate battle to avoid their fourth defeat in the past five Tests.

The responsibility for guiding England's resistance had fallen to new batsman Matt Prior at the start of play, which began an hour and a half late because of another blanket of fog.

Prior, though, was unable to forge much of a partnership with nightwatchman James Anderson and fell to the 13th ball of the day when he attempted a leg glance off Harbhajan Singh and was caught by India captain MS Dhoni standing up to the stumps.

He was followed in Harbhajan's next over when Stuart Broad shouldered arms to a delivery which he thought would turn but instead continued on its path and knocked back his off-stump.

India turned to left-arm seamer Zaheer Khan after several overs from leg-spinner Amit Mishra at the other end and the change of bowling earned another breakthrough.

New batsman Graeme Swann had allowed the previous two deliveries to swing away outside off-stump but his middle stump was removed with the next ball, which surprised him and swung in to edge India closer to a massive first innings lead.

Last man Monty Panesar lasted four overs until the innings ended with Harbhajan claiming his third wicket of the morning when he edged to short leg as England lost four wickets for 20 runs in 10.5 overs and six for 22 since yesterday afternoon.