Leeds: England captain Nasser Hussain and veteran keeper-batsman Alec Stewart staged a defiant rearguard action that kept India at bay on the fourth day of the third Test here at Headingley on Sunday.

At stumps England, following-on, was 239 for four with Hussain 90 not out, having batted for just short of four hours, facing 171 balls and hitting one six and 15 fours. Stewart, England's most capped player, was 40 not out off 112 balls with six fours. With Hussain, he put on 91 in a stand lasting two and-a-half hours and then survived the final four overs of the day against the new ball.

"The guys showed a lot of character," said England coach Duncan Fletcher. "It is the kind of wicket where you can't really get on top of the bowling. Nasser likes to get in there and scrap," Fletcher added in an explanation of why his captain bats well on unfriendly pitches.

He also paid tribute to 39-year-old Stewart, now in his 121st Test. "People have written him off and said we should go with youth. But sometimes you need to have pillars of experience."

But former Zimbabwe captain Fletcher said England still had plenty to do to deny India victory on Monday's final day. "We've got to play session by session and scrap it out like we did on Sunday.

"There's still a game to win. But we realised it wasn't going to be easy," said India coach John Wright.

"We'd have liked to have taken one or two wickets in the final session but Hussain and Stewart played pretty well. They are very experienced and made us work hard," the former New Zealand batsman admitted.

"But we've still got a day's cricket to play and hopefully we'll go to The Oval (where the fourth and final Test starts on September 5) at one all."

India might have achieved the break through, Wright craved, had teenage wicket- keeper Parthiv Patel not dropped Hussain (47) off leg spinner Anil Kumble to the last ball before tea.

India has not claimed a Test series victory outside of the sub-continent in 16 years but remain favourites to win this match and make the final Test a 'live' contest.

Copyright AFP 2001