James Anderson sets England on path to historic win

It was hard to dispel the feeling that Anderson, who has now taken Tendulkar’s wicket more than any other bowler in Tests, might also have terminated the Indian batsman’s stellar career.

When Anderson ended Gautam ­Gambhir’s hesitant stay with a ball slanting across him, India were in deep trouble and their unbeaten home record, which stretches back eight years, under distinct pressure.

England could hardly have expected more than they managed and following Root’s superb effort, aided and abetted by the lower order, it was their day. The pitch is slow but is still providing little encouragement for any bowlers and given the lack of pace, bounce and turn it can hardly improve.

There is time for matters to develop but pre-match warnings that the surface would contain a toxic combination of snakes and crocodiles, albeit metaphorical, appear to have been an exaggeration.

For Root, it was a memorable day despite being deprived of the 27 runs that would have given him a hundred in his first Test innings. His selection for the match took all observers by surprise considering he was brought on this tour as a spare opener and had played in only one of the three warm-up matches in which he made 28 and 24.

Yet from the moment he walked out at the VCA Stadium on the first evening he looked the part and marshalled England’s innings from a potentially precarious state of 139 for five.

It was an outstanding effort and his refusal to be flustered at any point, as well as the fact that he offered no chance whatever until he was dismissed, marked out a player who may well be Yorkshire’s latest durable contribution to England’s batting ranks.

He was given excellent support by Matt Prior and Graeme Swann, who also contributed half-centuries.

Beginning the day at 199 for five, Root and Prior took the less glamorous route. They worked out that if they stayed runs would accrue, slowly perhaps but definitely.

Prior was the more adventurous and reached his 30th Test score above 50 with a square cut for four.

Root followed not long after and one measure of his stoicism lay in the statistic that it contained only two fours.

Another was that he became the first man to face 200 balls in his maiden Test innings since Andrew Strauss made 112 from 215 in 2004.

Before lunch Prior was bowled playing down the wrong line to Ravi Ashwin and Tim Bresnan was dismissed lbw by Ishant Sharma almost immediately afterwards.

Nobody was quite sure what an adequate total was but 242 for seven was probably not it. Swann, as he has done for most of this series, batted with great good sense, driving off the front foot when the ball was there for it but otherwise biding his time.

Root continued doing things his own way, pushing singles, glancing, nudging and defending properly.

He had made barely a false move of any kind when he executed a drive at the leg spin of Piyush Chawla without sufficient conviction and gave a waist high return catch. He had batted for almost five hours, faced 229 balls and hit only four of them for four.

Swann had time to reach his first Test half-century for almost three years but ended an impeccable cameo with an over-confident reverse sweep to which he was out lbw.

England had a rousing start when Anderson’s third ball pierced Sehwag’s defence and removed the middle stump. If they were not sure they were on top before they knew it then.

PICTURE PROTEST

We apologise to all cricket fans as we are unable to print live pictures from today’s play. This paper, along with other British media groups, is not publishing any live pictures from the Fourth Test in protest at the Indian cricket board’s refusal to grant access to certain major picture agencies which we view as a restriction on the freedom of the press.