Cricket:England recovered from an early setback to frustrate India's hopes of making inroads as they attempted to prevent defeat in the second Test at Trent Bridge.
Resuming the fourth morning trailing by 240 runs on 43 without loss, England knew they had a major task just to make the tourists bat again in this match.
That objective became even tougher when England lost opener Alastair Cook in the third over of the day to leave them reeling on 49 for one, with seamers Zaheer Khan and Shanthakumaran Sreesanth swinging the ball prodigiously.
But Andrew Strauss and Michael Vaughan rode their luck to forge an unbroken 80-run partnership and guide England to a more respectable 129 for one at lunch, although they still trailed by 154 runs.
Cook had resumed overnight on 21 and added just two runs to his total before he fell to his fourth successive lbw, this time from left-arm seamer Zaheer.
The Essex left-hander had been tempted into playing and missing at an outswinger from the previous ball but was outwitted by Zaheer when he slanted the next delivery back into him and rapped him on the pads in front of his stumps.
Zaheer was unfortunate not to claim a second wicket in his next over when another inswinger narrowly missed England captain Vaughan's off-stump before he had scored.
Strauss finally got off the mark from his 15th ball when he clipped Zaheer for two off his legs, but it took until the eighth over of the day for England to claim their first boundary when Vaughan drove Sreesanth on the up through the covers.
But despite trying the gentle swing of Sourav Ganguly, the left-arm seam bowling of Rudra Pratap Singh and Anil Kumble in a desperate attempt to make the breakthrough, India were unable to halt England's stubborn second-wicket partnership.
Strauss claimed his third half-century in as many Tests after battling for over three hours at the crease.
Then, a single off Kumble took Vaughan to 36 and a milestone of his own, as he became the 17th England batsman to reach 5,000 Test runs.
By lunch Strauss had progressed to an unbeaten 54, while Vaughan survived a late scare, when he almost got a bottom edge on to his stumps attempting to pull Sreesanth, and reached the interval unbeaten on 36.