Cricket - Bell and Buttler heroics put England in charge

Bell (167) took his England century count on this ground to four - two in just two Test innings, to go with two in one-day internationals - as he and Gary Ballance (156) kept the hosts in a dominant position.

Then Buttler (85) rode his luck either side of tea, taking 20 of 21 runs off one Pankaj Singh over - including two successive legside sixes - and England piled up 569 for seven declared on day two of this third Test.

Hopes of a series-levelling win were therefore perhaps beginning to take shape, all the more so after James Anderson switched the angle round the wicket and had Shikhar Dhawan edging to slip in India's nervy 25 for one at stumps. 

Bell had completed his 21st Test century with a straight six off Ravindra Jadeja, a shot which also took him to 7,000 runs in this format. Like his captain Alastair Cook, who returned to form on day one, Bell began this match in need of a score - having gone 19 innings without a Test hundred. 

He and Ballance provided the momentum England needed, to buy wicket-taking time later, with a stand of 142 as 111 runs came in 29 overs before lunch.

Afternoon progress was less uniform, only 29 coming in the first hour after lunch - during which Mahendra Singh Dhoni permitted no bowler more than a one-over spell. 

He must have wished he had stuck to that unusual tactic when Jadeja became the first to be allowed a second consecutive over, only to concede 21 runs in it - including the second of Bell's two sixes in his 179-ball hundred, as well as two offside fours and another maximum over the slow left-armer's head. 

Bell was fortunate to survive on nought the previous evening when Pankaj might easily have had him lbw with a brilliant delivery. 

On a sunny morning, he soon edged the tall debutant seamer just past third slip for four - and then showed no pity as he leg-glanced him for a second boundary in successive balls. Ballance upped the ante too with three fours in four balls off Bhuvneshwar Kumar - a cut, leg-glance and on-drive - to surge to a new career-best. 

Dhoni tried to slow England's progress with a seven-two leg-side field for Jadeja to Ballance, cutting off many of the left-hander's run-scoring options with the spin - while Pankaj bowled short with men in position for hook, pull or deflection. Instead, it was part-time off-spinner Rohit Sharma who ended Ballance's near six-and-a-half-hour innings, in circumstances which suggested there may be help eventually for England's own all-rounder Moeen Ali. 

Ballance appeared unlucky, with no obvious bat-on-ball impact as he went caught-behind to one that turned and bounced sharply, and had him trudging off in disappointment after the 288th delivery he faced. 

But Bell, who already had his latest century in the bag on this happy hunting ground, was joined to significant effect by Buttler in a quickfire stand of 106 for the sixth wicket. Buttler was also dropped at slip by Dhawan on 23 and, finally, should have been stumped by Dhoni off Jadeja on 59.