Ishant Sharma broke open the first Test in a spell of brilliant fast-bowling on the fourth afternoon here at Lord's.
He helped reduce England to 62 for five (effectively 250 for five with the first-innings lead). But Matt Prior (103 n.o.) and Stuart Broad (74 n.o.) punished some surprisingly sub-par cricket from India — the keeping, the fielding, and the bowling fell apart after lunch — to re-establish England's dominance.
Set 458 to win (but realistically the best part of four sessions to bat on a slow pitch), India finished on 80 for one, ending a curious, transfixing day's play. Every Test session is significant, but, because of the format's accumulative nature, some are better placed to attain the critical mass needed to propel the contest to its denouement. Sunday's morning session appeared one such.

India, torpid in the field in England's first innings, looked keener. With Zaheer Khan (strained hamstring) and Sachin Tendulkar (viral infection) not taking the field, substitutes Wriddhiman Saha and Yuvraj Singh allowed India more mobile fielders.
But the increased energy sparked no more than a wicket — a delivery of perfect length from Praveen Kumar left Alastair Cook down the slope, eluding everything but the bat's edge — and the game was in a holding pattern.

In good touch
Andrew Strauss and Jonathan Trott looked in prime touch. Both batted out of their crease against Praveen. Not only does it dissuade the umpire from giving lbw decisions, but it also reduces the probability of edged strokes carrying, for they have longer to travel.
The wicketkeeper is conflicted at such moments. Does he force the batsman back into his crease by standing up but risk missing the snick swing brings? M.S. Dhoni chose to stay back. While he can't be faulted on wicket-keeping grounds, the case can be made that as captain he needed to force the issue.
Strauss fell against the run of play, missing a sweep against Harbhajan Singh to be correctly adjudged leg-before.
There were no portents of what was to follow. Ishant, having bowled 39 wicket-less overs in the Test till then, found that the spirit was with him. In a five-over spell before lunch, he mastered Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell, and Trott.

Superb delivery
Pietersen, as is his wont, lunged forward — only, the ball climbed to endanger his throat. Despite his best efforts to withdraw everything from the line, he gloved it through to Dhoni. The delivery to Trott was the perfect storm, a deadly confluence of length, movement, and deception.
A break-back at pace — up the slope, no less — penetrated a hurried drive to hit off-stump.
In between, Ishant snared Bell with the slope's help: the bowler's angle into the right-hander committed the batsman to play, but the ball straightened just enough to take the edge. It was thus a surprise that Ishant wasn't used immediately after lunch, allowing Eoin Morgan and Prior to rescue England from 72 for five.
It's likely that Dhoni, behind the eight-ball with the over-rate, wanted Suresh Raina for a few quick overs. But the initiative was lost. By the time Ishant returned to have Morgan caught off a sharp, surprising short ball — the batsman was nearly a second late on the pull-stroke — England had moved to 107 (ahead by 295).

Sloppy fielding
India's fielding reverted to the sloppiness of the first two days as well. The small crack of opportunity that Ishant had dynamited closed quickly, Prior playing another important innings and Broad gaining confidence from his bowling to swing a bold bat.
The partnership hurt India in more ways than one. Gautam Gambhir, fielding under the helmet at short-leg, was struck a fearsome blow on the elbow. He left at once for a scan.
With Gambhir not available to open (there were no updates from the Indian camp on his status, but he's the sort who'll bat if it's at all possible) and Tendulkar forced to wait till number seven (or half-an-hour after lunch on Monday, whichever is sooner), it was an unsettled Indian batting line-up that faced Sunday evening's challenge.
Abhinav Mukund again showed heartening signs before chopping a Broad delivery onto his stumps. Rahul Dravid, required to open after being keeping wickets, summoned remarkable resilience to take India to stumps. V.V.S. Laxman kept his old friend company. Just the men India would want together for a difficult final day.