Ian Bell has ended his century drought in style after Gary Ballance made his Test-best score as England piled on the runs against India in the third Test at Southampton.
Bell made 167 and Ballance 156 before Test debutant Jos Buttler rode his luck to make 85 as England captain Alastair Cook declared on 569 for seven on Monday.
Struggling Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan was then caught by Cook at first slip off James Anderson for six.
However, Murali Vijay (11 not out) and Cheteshwar Pujara (four not out) survived until stumps, with India 25 for one at the close on the second day – a deficit of 544 runs.
England, 1-0 down in the five-match series, resumed on Monday on 247 for two, with Zimbabwe-born left-hander Ballance 104 not out – his third hundred in six Tests.
Meanwhile, Bell, who might have been lbw for a duck to a brilliant late-swinging delivery from debutant paceman Pankaj Singh, was 16 not out.
England’s total also owed much to Cook’s 95 that saw the left-handed opener end a run of low scores, if not a sequence that now extends to 28 innings without a Test hundred.
India, without the injured Ishant Sharma – the seven-wicket hero of their 95-run win in the second Test at Lord’s – had struggled for penetration after Cook won the toss on an even-paced pitch.
Ballance soon surpassed his previous highest Test score of 110, and with the sun breaking through to make conditions ideal for batting, he pulled Singh to the fine leg boundary to get to 150 in 278 balls with 23 fours.
But soon afterwards the 24-year-old was given out, caught behind off the gentle spin of Rohit Sharma, to end a stay of more than six hours at the crease.
England lost Joe Root and Moeen Ali cheaply but Bell reached his hundred in style by driving left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja for six.
Bell’s 21st Test hundred had come off 179 balls, with 12 fours and two sixes, and was the 32-year-old Warwickshire batsman’s first in 20 innings at this level since he made 113 against Australia at Durham’s Riverside ground last year.
He eventually holed out off Kumar, having batted for nearly six hours, facing 256 balls with 19 fours and three sixes.
