England ride on Strauss's epic

Andrew Strauss became the tenth England batsman to score two hundreds in a Test as he continued his monumental performance in Chennai. He moved to 102 on the fourth morning, to push England's lead to an imposing 319, with Paul Collingwood progressing to 93 in an unbroken fourth-wicket stand of 201.

Sportsmen talk about 'being in the zone' and Strauss has been transfixed in it from the moment this match started. His second hundred came in a fitting way, a gentle nudge into the leg side off Zaheer Khan from his 213th ball - Strauss's innings was rarely flamboyant but perfectly in tune with the situation and England's requirements. He was the first England batsman to double up since Marcus Trescothick against West Indies, at Edgbaston, in 2004.

Throughout the session Strauss and Collingwood produced sedate, risk free batting, but after a slow opening half an hour managed to tick the scoreboard over without trying anything too elaborate. They were aided by wide-spread fields from Mahendra Singh Dhoni, that while cutting off the boundaries allowed plenty of ones and twos, and once again the fourth-wicket pair ran superbly between the wickets.

The occasional boundary helped progress and the strongest shot of the morning was when Collingwood danced down the pitch to Mishra and launched him over midwicket. Collingwood, though, was able to remain within his comfort zone of just working the plentiful gaps but moved into the nineties with a thumping pull off Yuvraj Singh.

For elegance, however, Strauss produced the shot of the morning with a back-foot punch off the increasingly flustered Harbhajan Singh. It has been one of the triumphs for England in this game, the manner in which they have neutralised Harbhajan and he was again picked off with comfort as he bowled too short. Strauss's play against the spinners remained a hallmark of his innings as he drove the Indian bowlers to distraction.

Mishra, too, didn't cause many alarms and the pick of India's attack was Ishant Sharma with an economical early spell. The ease with which Strauss and Collingwood batted through the session showed that the pitch certainly isn't a minefield, although shortly after Strauss reached three figures one of Mishra's deliveries ran along the ground, and another from Harbhajan burst through the top. England's bowlers won't mind seeing plenty more of them and now thoughts turn to when Kevin Pietersen might declare.