England on driver's seat at the end of fourth day

A brilliant century by English wicketkeeper Matt Prior helped the hosts take a lead of 457 runs against India in the fourth and crucial day of the first Test match of the series here on Sunday.

English team declared their second innings at 269 runs for the loss six wickets.

Indians need to score 458 runs to win the Test but have already lost the wicket of opener Mukund at his personal score of 12 runs. The experienced Rahul Dravid (32*) and VVS Laxman (28*) are at the crease and the visiting side need their good performances in the rest of the innings to keep hopes of survival alive.

India have scored 73 for the loss of one wicket at the end of 25 overs in their second innings.

Earlier, on the start of the day, lanky Indian fast bowler Ishant Sharma bowled his heart out to give some hope of bringing the visitors in the match with his fiery spell. He picked four English wickets by giving away 59 runs.

At a point the English were tottering at 107 runs for the loss of six wickets and the Indian fans hoped that the hosts will be easily bowled out.

But a gutsy innings by Prior and Broad dragged the match once again from India and helped in putting up a massive target for the visitors.

Broad who has a good reputation with the bat at Lord´s scored an important partnership of 162 runs in the seventh wicket along with Prior.

Prior hit five boundaries and a sixer in his innings of 103 runs from 120 deliveries while Broad scored 74 runs from 90 deliveries.

The Indian bowlers bowled well in the morning but could not complete task as they failed to break the seventh wicket partnership between M.Prior and S Broad.

Off spinner Harbhajan Singh took one wicket while the slow swing bowler Kumar scalped the wicket of Cook.

Zaheer Khan who had injured himself in the very first day of the Test match could not ball in this innings. Sachin Tendulkar who was down with viral fever could not make to the field till tea on the fourth day of the Test match on Sunday. He came to the field for the last session.

Earlier, he had missed the 100th century in the first innings of the game. His fans will expect him to complete the unfinished business in the second innings and help India survive this historic Test match against England.

The Indian team is already facing problems regarding injury in this series and to add to the trouble Gautam Gambhir got injured while fielding at the short leg on day four.

A powerful shot by Matt Prior on the 55 over of the innings hit his left elbow on Sunday. He did not open second innings along with Mukund and it was Rahul Dravid who opened the Indian innings on Sunday.

In response to England´s first innings total of 474 runs for the loss of eight wickets, India got bowled out at 286 runs in their first innings.