England Cricket / Andrew Hughes / 31 July 2011 /

A glorious century, crafty swing bowling and very nearly a diplomatic incident: Sunday at Trent Bridge had it all. Andrew Hughes rounds up the action and looks ahead to Day Four.

After another sunny day in Nottinghamshire, England find themselves in a match winning position thanks to a match winning innings from Ian Bell. He stroked 159 runs of the highest quality, the most impressive performance he has ever turned in at number 3. India even had to dismiss him twice, the first time after a display of doziness in which he was run out after walking off towards the pavilion before over had been called. It was an extremely sporting gesture of Indian captain M S Dhoni to rescind his appeal during the tea interval, a move that calmed a heated situation, although I wonder whether England would have done the same.

As it happened, Bell only added another 22 runs before being dismissed a second time and the bigger picture is that India now face a near-impossible task. They will most likely have to score around 400 to win this game, on a pitch that is perhaps flattening a touch, but is far from a batting paradise. The alternative, to try to bat for two days to save the game, an equally unappealing mission. But, weakened though it is by the absence of Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag, this is a powerful batting order. If you believe they can pull it off, you can still back the Indians at [13.5] And good luck to you.

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