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England 330 and 240 for 3 (Trott 106*, Bell 61*) lead India 326 for 9 dec by 244 runs
Jonathan Trott reached his eighth Test hundred, and his first since March, as he and Ian Bell all but assured England of their first series win in India since 1984-85. The pair carried their overnight stand to 146, with both batsmen finding redemption for what has been a lean year for them in Test cricket, and by lunch England's lead was an imposing 244.
India needed a couple of early wickets to send a few tremors through the England camp but they never threatened. The new ball was taken one over into the day without making a jot of difference. Barring a couple of sessions, this has been a Test devoid of excitement and low on the watchability stakes. England, of course, will not care in the slightest about that but pitches like this are far worse that the 'result' surfaces that get the ICC twitchy.
For Trott and Bell there was a job to do in the first session and they did it expertly. There was good intent from the pair in the first half an hour of the day to ensure the lead was soon in excess of 200 and getting out of sight of India.
Trott has played as freely as any specialist batsman in the game and twice on-drove Ravindra Jadeja beautifully through mid-on - or, in the second case, under mid-on as R Ashwin dived over the ball. He reached his hundred with two boundaries in three balls against Piyush Chawla, a cover drive followed by a trademark flick wide of mid-on, and allowed a little bit of emotion to come through his steely demeanour.
Trott had not reached three figures since the second innings against Sri Lanka, in Galle, and it was only his second hundred since making 203 against Sri Lanka, in Cardiff, in May 2011. However, he has continued to chip in, the average has only dipped and not plummeted, and once again England were immensely grateful to their rock-solid No. 3.
His Warwickshire team-mate, Bell, was equally composed in making his first half-century of a difficult series, where his frailties in India had been exposed again. Although the situation was comfortable for England by lunch, that was not the case when Bell had come in at 94 for 3 so it was a strong display of character from him. His fifty, just the second he had scored in India, came with a straight drive off Ashwin as the off-side play that makes him so pleasing to watch when in form began to make an appearance.
With no motivation for Cook to declare, there was a chance for both batsmen to fill their boots further against a bowling attack now going through the motions with the series slipping away. The fielding, which has rarely been good, showed more signs of raggedness and there was a look on the faces of the India players that they wanted this to finish as soon as possible.
Jonathan Trott reached his eighth Test hundred, and his first since March, as he and Ian Bell all but assured England of their first series win in India since 1984-85. The pair carried their overnight stand to 146, with both batsmen finding redemption for what has been a lean year for them in Test cricket, and by lunch England's lead was an imposing 244.
India needed a couple of early wickets to send a few tremors through the England camp but they never threatened. The new ball was taken one over into the day without making a jot of difference. Barring a couple of sessions, this has been a Test devoid of excitement and low on the watchability stakes. England, of course, will not care in the slightest about that but pitches like this are far worse that the 'result' surfaces that get the ICC twitchy.
For Trott and Bell there was a job to do in the first session and they did it expertly. There was good intent from the pair in the first half an hour of the day to ensure the lead was soon in excess of 200 and getting out of sight of India.
Trott has played as freely as any specialist batsman in the game and twice on-drove Ravindra Jadeja beautifully through mid-on - or, in the second case, under mid-on as R Ashwin dived over the ball. He reached his hundred with two boundaries in three balls against Piyush Chawla, a cover drive followed by a trademark flick wide of mid-on, and allowed a little bit of emotion to come through his steely demeanour.
Trott had not reached three figures since the second innings against Sri Lanka, in Galle, and it was only his second hundred since making 203 against Sri Lanka, in Cardiff, in May 2011. However, he has continued to chip in, the average has only dipped and not plummeted, and once again England were immensely grateful to their rock-solid No. 3.
His Warwickshire team-mate, Bell, was equally composed in making his first half-century of a difficult series, where his frailties in India had been exposed again. Although the situation was comfortable for England by lunch, that was not the case when Bell had come in at 94 for 3 so it was a strong display of character from him. His fifty, just the second he had scored in India, came with a straight drive off Ashwin as the off-side play that makes him so pleasing to watch when in form began to make an appearance.
With no motivation for Cook to declare, there was a chance for both batsmen to fill their boots further against a bowling attack now going through the motions with the series slipping away. The fielding, which has rarely been good, showed more signs of raggedness and there was a look on the faces of the India players that they wanted this to finish as soon as possible.