Pietersen leads impressive recovery
Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff combined in an unbroken century stand as England continued an impressive recovery from a shaky start to their first innings in the final Test.
England's captain hit his 15th Test century, and all-rounder Flintoff was unbeaten on 44 as the tourists put behind them the perilous beginnings of one for two to reach 242 for four by late afternoon on the third day at the PCA Stadium.
They added 111 runs in just 28 overs either side of the tea interval to prevent India, who were dismissed for 453 last night, taking control.
Pietersen was aggressive from the moment he arrived at the crease and became the third-fastest England player to reach 4,000 Test runs on 105 - beaten only by Herbert Sutcliffe and Len Hutton and equalling Jack Hobbs' 45 Tests to the landmark.
His innings was crucial to England's fightback, after they lost two wickets inside the first two overs - Zaheer Khan striking with the third ball of the day to win an lbw verdict against Andrew Strauss.
England were in bigger trouble in the next over, Ishant Sharma continuing Ian Bell's struggles by removing his middle stump with his first delivery.
India captain M S Dhoni immediately tried to unsettle Pietersen by turning to the left-arm spin of Yuvraj Singh - with whom the England captain has had a running battle throughout the series.
Pietersen was fortunate to survive Yuvraj's first delivery - which flew off the inside edge wide of the stumps - and he almost picked out extra cover with a drive off the final ball of the over.
Yuvraj was taken off after that one over, and it took the return of Zaheer midway through the afternoon session to make the next breakthrough - an inswinging yorker earning an lbw success against Alastair Cook.
But with Flintoff showing aggression from the start of his innings, England quickly regained the momentum as they seek to claim the victory which would level the series.
