Panesar, Swann spin England to brink
Report courtesy of Eurosport.
England are on the brink of a series-levelling win as India stumbled to 117 for seven at stumps on day three of the second test in Mumbai on Sunday.
Monty Panesar starred with the ball, taking five for 61 - and 10 in the match - as India crumbled. Graeme Swann provided able support, finishing the day with two wickets for 39.
India lead by just 31 runs with three second-innings wickets in hand.
Kevin Pietersen set it all up with a majestic 186 for England, supported by Alastair Cook, who made 122 as the tourists reached 413.
Their stand, worth 206 runs, propelled England towards a lead. Cook, 87 not out overnight, was quickly and on to a 22nd test century. It gave him a four-way share in the record for England test centuries, along with Wally Hammond, Colin Cowdrey and Geoffrey Boycott.
Moments later Pietersen joined him, reverse-sweeping for four to raise his 22nd test ton.
It was an excellent ball from Ravichandran Ashwin which claimed Cook's outside edge and finally ended his innings.
Jonny Bairstow followed on the stroke of lunch, a leading edge caught by Gautam Gambhir at silly point.
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There was controversy about the dismissal: replays showed that Gambhir had caught the ball via deflection from his helmet, meaning it should have been called a dead ball, and indeed it appeared that over the lunch interval discussions were held between England's coaching team, the umpires and India about whether to reinstate him.
It was a simple umpiring error, and Samit Patel joined Pietersen after the interval.
Patel's decent start ended on 26, edging to Ojha, while Pietersen became Ojha's fifth victim.
The tail succumb, however, with Matt Prior run out clumsily on 21, while Stuart Broad (six) and James Anderson (two) fell in a single Harbhajan Singh over. Panesar slog-swept a four over midwicket before holing out trying to repeat the feat the next ball - England have added just 31 runs once Pietersen had departed.
A lead of 86 runs soon looked very imposing.
Panesar opened in tandem with Anderson, and the top order came and went for single-figure scores.
Virender Sehwag was first, caught by Swann in the gully for nine, before first-innings centurion Cheteshwar Pujara was pouched by short leg off the bowling of Swann for six.
Sachin Tendulkar stroked a couple of fours against Panesar before being caught on the back foot in front of his pads with eight to his name, while Virat Kohli played a shocking shot to a full toss, gifting his wicket to Swann on six with a catch at short extra cover.
Yuvraj Singh added eight before Jonny Bairstow took a second short leg catch of the evening, this time for Panesar.
MS Dhoni was caught at slip for six, while Ashwin holed out recklessly with the close of play in sight.
Report Day 1
Report Day 2
INDIA: V Sehwag, G Gambhir, CA Pujara, SR Tendulkar, V Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni*†, Harbhajan Singh, R Ashwin, Z Khan, PP Ojha
ENGLAND: AN Cook*, NRD Compton, IJL Trott, KP Pietersen, JM Bairstow, SR Patel, MJ Prior†, SCJ Broad, GP Swann, MS Panesar, JM Anderson
