The English cricket team must have a reason to believe that going down on their knees is the best way to stand tall on sub-continental wickets. Ever since Graham Gooch’s success against India in the 1987 World Cup semi-final in Mumbai, the sweep shot has been effectively and regularly used against spinners here.

On Sunday at the PCA Stadium in Mohali, skipper Kevin Pietersen repeatedly threw his left leg across and outside off-stump, despite an open stance, to drag his side from the middle of a crisis to almost the brink of safety in the 310 minutes he spent at the crease. The beauty of his knock of 144 was the number of variations of the sweep shot he used — he brought out the patented switch-hit, cheekily paddled the ball around and on occasions swatted it with power to garner 17 boundaries and a six.

He and Andrew Flintoff dug England out of the hole, but both fell in the last two overs of the day as they finished at 282 for six and a match that looked destined to head for a draw has opened up for India.

Pietersen walked in to bat just seven balls into the day after a delayed start — England having lost two wickets for one run — to grab the buoyant Indian attack by the scruff of its neck.

The first test came against his nemesis Yuvraj Singh, Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni bringing on the left-arm spinner in just the third over of the day. He survived that move, even if a bit nervously, and immediately went into overdrive.

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