CRICKET / India v England / Third Test: England were tottering last night as India came back hard after James Anderson, recapturing the zest and innocence of his international youth, had bowled the tourists into a position from which they ought to be able to control the destiny of the third Test.

Anderson bowled brilliantly to take four for 40 - and just for good measure ran out the top scorer Mahendra Singh Dhoni with a direct hit on the single stump he could see - as India reached 279 all out thanks again to spirited lower-order resistance.

It still gave England a lead of 121, gold dust on a pitch that has offered help to bowlers throughout the first three days and will be yet more generous as the Test enters its final stages. But this is India and, as Australia have found out in the past, strange things can happen.

In the hour or so left to bat, when England would have wished for consolidation as a prelude to something more extravagant today they lost Andrew Strauss and Ian Bell.

Bell, looking vulnerable on this tour, edged behind at the start of a brief, adrenalin-fuelled burst from Sri Sreesanth that also saw the nightwatchman Shaun Udal caught behind in the eyes (and ears) of everyone except umpire Darrell Hair, and then missed at third slip by Yuvraj Singh.

So England resumed this morning with the score on 31 for two and a lead of 152. Somebody will have to play a big innings.

Given the inadequacy demonstrated by India's top order - whose reluctance to face Matthew Hoggard on the first morning is believed to have had some bearing on Rahul Dravid's decision to put England in - it may be that Sreesanth's success will have served merely to fuel the paranoia.

Three weeks ago, before the first Test in Nagpur, Simon Jones twisted a knee in the nets and hobbled off to the dressingroom. Act Two immediately followed with Anderson entering stage left from the same changing room and blinking in bemused fashion as if it was all a bad dream and he would wake up to find he was still on an Antiguan beach with his A team.

In truth it has been quite a ride for Anderson since he burst on the scene in Australia over three years ago. In the interim his action has been scrutinised and dissected by experts and non-experts alike, and his psychological make-up examined. By the end of last winter, short on pace and shorter on confidence, he was spraying the ball with such abandon that he could have had a hosepipe ban slapped on him.

A season in county cricket seems to have worked more wonders than all the coaching.

Having dismissed Sachin Tendulkar on Sunday evening, Anderson added Rahul Dravid to his collection, Flintoff having first removed the impulsive Yuvraj to one of three excellent catches by Geraint Jones. Dravid has been the rock on which India's batting has been built in this series but, having hauled his painstaking way to 52, he flicked down the leg-side and Jones took a second catch.

Later Anderson was to return and claim the wickets of Harbhajan Singh (Jones again, in front of first slip's face) and Munaf Patel to finish the innings.

He would have had Dhoni, too, on 23, had Monty Panesar hung on to a low chance to his right at mid-off when the Indian wicketkeeper, playing with a responsibility light years away from the projected free-spirited persona, drove too firmly. That it found Panesar was unfortunate. It was not a straightforward chance but England had not done their homework here; that is one of Dhoni's aerial areas and it required a top fielder there.

Anderson was able to make amends, though, and it came through a combination of Dhoni's ambition and the fielder's calmness. The batsman was on 64 and had embarked on an assault on Flintoff and the second new ball which yielded successive boundaries to square-leg, cover and third man. Now, eyeing up the open space on the leg-side, he attempted to work the ball to midwicket with his bottom hand but succeeded only in hitting it to Anderson's right at wide mid-on.

As the batsman sprinted the fielder made ground to his right, collected the ball, shied and hit at the bowler's end as Dhoni lunged for the crease. Countless replays from different angles seemed to suggest the benefit of the doubt must go to the batsman.

The third umpire Krishna "Harry" Hariharan thought otherwise. Whatever happened to home decisions?