England's bowlers proved that it doesn't matter how many thousands of runs a top order has, each innings is a new one and all batsmen are human. A fine combined effort from the five-man attack reduced India to 155 for 6 in reply to their 316 on the second day in Chennai. Graeme Swann grabbed the spotlight with two wickets in his first over in Test cricket and three strikes in the final hour - one apiece for Monty Panesar, Andrew Flintoff and Steve Harmison - allowed England to cement unexpected control.
The pitch has already played a part in this fascinating contest and chasing in the fourth innings isn't going to be easy. There was help for Harbhajan Singh and Amit Mishra, but also for England's spin pair as Swann and Panesar matched them. After stumbling to 37 for 3, courtesy Swann's two in four balls before tea, India partially recovered through Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman. But their dismissals in consecutive overs after the break stunned the crowd into silence.
Flintoff produced another of the chest-thumping spells for which he has become famous. With his first ball back he had Tendulkar caught and bowled and then got under the skin of Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh. There is a belief that Yuvraj doesn't have the same taste for Tests as he does for one-dayers and the roughing-up worked: in the penultimate over of the day he drove at Harmison, edging to Flintoff at second slip.
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