India in sight of victory over England

NOTTINGHAM, England, July 30 (Reuters) Left-arm seamer Zaheer Khan took five for 75 today to put India in sight of victory over England in the second test at Trent Bridge.

At the close on the fourth day India, chasing 73 to go one-up in the three-test series, were 10 without loss.

Captain Michael Vaughan scored 124 in England's second innings of 355 while Andrew Strauss struck 55 and Paul Collingwood 63.

Vaughan, who passed 5,000 test runs, completed his 17th test century but England collapsed from 287 for three to 355 all out as Zaheer exploited the new ball.

England, who began the day 240 runs behind India's first innings 481, were fighting hard when Vaughan and Collingwood came together in a fourth-wicket stand that was worth 112.

But when the luckless Vaughan, who stroked 18 boundaries, was bowled by Zaheer after the ball struck his thigh pad and rolled on to his stumps, the innings folded.

Ian Bell was lbw to Zaheer two balls later and Matt Prior batted for 41 minutes but made just seven before he was bowled by Rudra Pratap Singh.

Collingwood's innings of just over three hours was ended when he edged Zaheer to first slip. Anil Kumble removed Chris Tremlett, Monty Panesar and James Anderson while Ryan Sidebottom played a cameo of 25 not out in 26 balls.

Earlier, Alastair Cook fell to the 12th ball of the day, lbw for the fourth consecutive time in the series, to Zaheer before Strauss and Vaughan added 81.

Strauss departed eight balls after lunch when he played a poorly executed cut shot to a short and wide delivery from Zaheer and was caught behind.

England's hopes of survival were further hit when Kevin Pietersen was unsettled and then dismissed by an explosive four-ball sequence.

Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, already warned by umpire Ian Howell for brushing past Vaughan in the morning, bowled a beamer that caused Pietersen to collapse to the floor to avoid being struck on the head. Sreesanth apologised for the illegal delivery.

At the start of the next over, bowled by Singh, Pietersen wafted at a wide delivery and survived a caught behind appeal that replays suggested was out. Next ball he was trapped lbw to an in-swinger to which he played no stroke.

The first test at Lord's was drawn when England, who have not lost a home series since 2001, were prevented from taking a match-winning 20th wicket on the final day because of rain.

Reuters SAM VP0103