AHMEDABAD, Nov 18: Skipper Alastair Cook led a remarkable England fightback with a heroic unbeaten 168 as the defiant visitors wiped out India’s mammoth first-innings lead with a gritty batting display to raise hopes of saving the first cricket Test here on Sunday.

The 27-year-old Cook displayed immense concentration and skill to not only notch up his 21st Test century under pressure but also keep his team in the game as he steered England to 340 for five at close on the penultimate day which saw the Sardar Patel Stadium track ease out quite a bit.

The England captain found an able ally in wicket-keeper Matt Prior (84) as the duo put on an unfinished 141-run partnership to leave the Indians frustrated.

The spinners, who were expected to do the bulk of the damage, found it difficult to get the wickets.

England, who conceded a mammoth 330-run first innings lead and were asked to follow-on, have now taken a lead of 10 runs, setting the stage for an interesting fifth day’s play on Monday with all three results possible.

India will look to claim the remaining five wickets as quickly as possible tomorrow and push for a 1-0 lead in the four-match series.

England, on the other hand, will try to bat as much as possible and may even put pressure on India by taking a substantial lead on a tricky fifth day track.

Resuming at the overnight score of 111-0, England lost the wickets of Nick Compton (37), Jonathan Trott (17), Kevin Pietersen (2), Ian Bell (22) and Samit Patel (0) but it was Cook who stood like a rock to hold the English innings together showing superb endurance.

Cook batted the whole day with exemplary patience, determination and composure to remain unconquered.

Cook, who has faced 341 balls and struck 20 fours, was given splendid support by Prior, who was not out on 84 that came off 190 balls and contained 10 fours.

The duo batted resolutely even as Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni constantly shuffled his bowling attack that lacked the bite of the first innings.

But the day belonged entirely to Cook after a couple of quick blows by left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha and wickets off successive balls by pacer Umesh Yadav on either side of lunch.

It was the sixth 150-plus score by Cook who had scored a century on debut in Nagpur in 2006. His other three-figure effort against India (294) was made at Edgbaston in the last series between the two teams in 2011.

Cook also became the eighth English batsman to score more than one hundred on Indian soil, by joining the ranks of Ken Barrington (3), Andrew Strauss (3), Colin Cowdrey (2), Tony Greig (2), Mike Gatting (2), Ian Botham (2) and Paul Collingwood (2). The Indian bowlers toiled hard throughout the day against the resolute England skipper and, after lunch, against his more aggressive partner Prior without success.

Cook’s composure and patience was creditable right through and he hardly played a false shot.

While Ojha was easily the more impressive of the two Indian spinners, getting some bite with his flighted deliveries, Ravichandran Ashwin bowled mostly flat through the air but was also guilty of not maintaining a tight line outside the off.

Ojha ended the day with figures of 2-102 in 44 overs to add to his 5-45 of the first innings while Ashwin, who got three in the first innings, went wicketless in his 41 overs in which he gave away 104 runs.

Yadav, another successful bowler of the day, had 2-60. Zaheer Khan bowled economically, giving away 38 runs in 18 overs for the wicket of Compton in the first session.

In the second session, Yadav struck two body blows by making the ball reverse swing to trap Ian Bell (22) and Samit Patel (0) leg before wicket off the fifth and sixth balls of his first over of a new spell to leave the tourists gasping at 199-5.

Ojha had done similar damage in the first session by dismissing Jonathan Trott (17) and Kevin Pietersen (2) within a space of seven balls spread over two overs to push England on the back foot after Cook and Compton had put on a stand of 123.—Agencies