Swann revives England hopes

The Nottinghamshire off-spinner ended the explosive innings of opener Virender Sehwag just six overs before the close of the fourth day as India finished on 131 for one from just 29 overs chasing a victory target of 387, which would be a record fourth innings total at the Chepauk Stadium.

Sehwag missed out by just two balls from equalling the Indian record for the fastest Test half-century held by Kapil Dev off 30 balls and went on to hit 83 off just 68 balls including four sixes and 11 fours.

His innings gave India an early impetus in stark contrast to England's progress during the day when they took 51.5 overs to score just 139 runs, including only 57 runs in an afternoon session spanning 22.5 overs.

England had been given a platform for a more aggressive approach with overnight batsmen Andrew Strauss and Paul Collingwood making history of their own and both progressing to centuries.

Middlesex left-hander Strauss had progressed from his overnight 73 to become only the 10th England batsman in history to score centuries in both innings of a Test and only the fourth ever in India.

He was followed to the landmark by Collingwood after lunch, who claimed his second century in three Tests, before their 214-run stand was finally ended off the next ball when Strauss drove Harbhajan Singh to extra cover.

All-rounder Andrew Flintoff, who might have been relied upon to increase the scoring rate, fell three overs later, edging seamer Ishant Sharma behind and Collingwood's six-hour stay at the crease was ended six overs later when he was given lbw to left-arm seamer Zaheer Khan.

Zaheer claimed two further wickets before the interval, knocking back Swann's leg stump and re-arranging Steve Harmison's stumps to further restrict England's hopes of progressing quickly.

That mini-collapse restricted England to a slow scoring rate and they finally declared after adding just 10 runs following tea, prompting Sehwag to launch his own bid for victory as India attempt to overhaul the highest ever fourth innings total at the ground of 347 recorded against Australia in the tied Test of 1986.