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England plod on towards draw

England plod on towards draw
© PA Photos
England maintain a healthy lead at the end of the fourth day of the fourth Test.

Resolute batting from Jonathan Trott helped England to maintain a healthy lead and take time out of the game with just a day to go in the Fourth Test against India.

The South Africa-born Trott hit an unbeaten 66 runs off 153 balls as the tourists reached 161-3 and look to be taking the game away from India.

The day started with India adding just 29 runs to their overnight total before declaring on 326-9, four runs behind England's first innings score. Monty Panesar picked up the solitary wicket, bowling Pragyan Ojha for 3 runs.

The England openers made steady progress before lunch and then continued to build a lead in the afternoon session, before captain Alastair Cook was wrongly given out for the second time in the match. He was given out caught behind off the spin of Ravichandran Ashwin, but replays failed to show a nick.

Despite this setback, Nick Compton and Trott continued the theme of the Test and slowly accumulated runs. However, this partnership ended just before tea when Ojha trapped Compton in front of the stumps and the umpire gave him out LBW, though caught at slip would have been a more accurate verdict.

Kevin Pietersen inexplicably shouldered arms to a straight delivery from Ravindra Jadeja, but that was to be the last dismissal of the day as Ian Bell came in and ably supported Trott as the pair put on 67 for the fourth wicket.

Tensions began to rise and India thought they had Trott caught behind late in the day as Mahendra Singh Dhoni's side became desperate to take wickets with England only needing to bat for a session tomorrow for the series to be won by the tourists.

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