India on brink of victory

Vaughan, 32, guided his team into profit at Trent Bridge, the scene of his Test-best 197 against India five years ago. But his freakish dismissal sparked a drastic collapse as the final seven wickets went down for 68 runs as England claimed a lead of just 72 runs in their second innings.

It was a fight from the front from Vaughan, who came to the crease in the third over of the fourth morning with the score 49 for one and hit a brilliant 124.

He struck 15 boundaries on his way to a second three-figure Test score of the summer and began to show glimpses of his halcyon period of 2002-03 as England closed in on parity after tea on the fourth day.

Paul Collingwood put the home team into the lead with an aerial pull for four off Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, when scores were level, in the second over with the new ball.

But Vaughan was cruelly dismissed when an attempted clip to leg ricocheted the ball off his thigh pad and into the stumps.

England's bid to remain level in the series was then dealt a second blow in the same Zaheer Khan over as Ian Bell was trapped leg before and once again England's tail folded.

By the close, openers Dinesh Karthik and Wasim Jaffer had wiped off 10 runs from India's 73-run target.