After bundling out England for 302 in the first innings, the hosts were 44 for three at one stage but accelerated the pace of scoring late in the day to reach 134 for four at close on the penultimate day, taking an overall lead of 285 runs.

Opener Gautam Gambhir (44) and Yuvraj Singh (39) were at the crease at stumps on a day which saw England's victory hopes being completely shattered.

With just one day left in the match, a draw or an Indian victory appear to be the only two results possible but the hosts have to show more urgency to force a result.

With fog expected to delay the start of the game on Tuesday may not get the required time to force a result and it remains to be seen what target captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni will give the visitors who are trailing the two-match series 0-1.

As his 39-ball 40, including five fours and a six would suggest, Yuvraj looked the only Indian at ease with the England attack which put up a disciplined performance.

Gambhirs was a patient 155-ball knock that included just three fours.

Considering the attacking cricket that has of late been their trademark, Indias star-studded top order cut a sorry figure against the likes of Stuart Broad and James Anderson who did everything to make life difficult for the hosts.

The English seamers completely straitjacketed the Indians in the post-lunch session, which yielded just 47 runs in 23 overs, which cost India the wickets of Virender Sehwag (17), Rahul Dravid (0) and Sachin Tendulkar (5).

Early signs, however, looked positive. Gambhir looked his fluent self, hitting Anderson for two boundaries in the first over of the innings. Sehwag, however, didn’t look convincing and the right-hander scored his first run through a streaky lemon cut.

Two boundaries off Anderson promised a lot before an agile Ian Bell cut short Sehwags stay. The opener had hit it hard back at bowler Stuart Broad, who only managed to deflect the ball, prompting Sehwag to set off for a risky single.

From short extra-cover Bell darted, picked up the ball and dived straight into the stumps with Sehwag way short of the ground.

The long-awaited century in the first innings was expected to do world of good to Dravids confidence but he seemed back to square one again, looking thoroughly unconvincing before Broad squeezed one through his gate to rattle his stumps for a 19-ball duck.

Tendulkar came amid thunderous applause that is reserved for him wherever he goes. But the Mohali Test turned out to be a highly forgettable outing for the Mumbaikar who followed his first innings score of 11 with a five.

Tormented by Broad right from the start, Tendulkar guided Anderson to gully to find Graeme Swann and at 44 for three, India didn’t look like the team, which had a clear edge in the match.

Gambhir and VVS Laxman (15) found going really tough. By then, boundaries had become a rarity and singles were not easy to come by either.

England lifted their fielding standard as well to stifle the runs and Laxman returned run out after an almighty mix-up with Gambhir.

Yuvraj announced his arrival with two fours off a Monty Panesar over and soon Indias 100 came after 45 painstaking overs. There was no respite for Panesar as Yuvraj went after the left-arm spinner, hitting him all over the park and once in the stand -- to go at a run-a-ball rate as suddenly scoring looked easy.

Earlier, India needed 45 minutes to polish off Englands tail after heavy fog resulted in a two-hour delay. Off-colour so far in the match, Harbhajan Singh made some amends by claiming three of the last four wickets to hasten Englands collapse.

The visitors in fact lost their last six wickets for meagre 22 runs.

Spin colleagues Harbhajan and Amit Mishra opened the attack for the hosts this morning and the off-spinner struck with his seventh delivery of the day which kissed Matt Priors (2) blade and Dhoni neatly collected the ball behind the stumps.

Harbhajan claimed his second wicket of the day in the very next over. Stuart Broad (1) proved a terrible judge of the turn as he left the ball alone only to see it straighten and knock back his off-stump.

Replacing Amit Mishra, Zaheer Khan struck in his second over, rattling Graeme Swanns (3) stumps before Harbhajan dropped curtains on the innings, claiming Panesar (5).