Mark Butcher's four and quarter hour stay at the crease yesterday, and an innings of 92 that kept England's ambitions of victory alive, was courageous enough in normal circumstances but the curse of an Indian stomach bug was enough to revive memories of harsher times.

Butcher was far from well, and conquered his hardship ably. To bat so long in intense heat, against India's high-class spin pairing of Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble, was a considerable achievement for a batsman who once only had to see a slow bowler to start unstrapping his pads. Here was proof of an enhanced technique, assisted by some dreadful Indian catching and uninspiring captaincy by Sourav Ganguly.

England professed that a fourth day in which they reached 257, a lead of 373, and bowled seven unsuccessful overs at the Indian openers at the fag-end of the day, had gone according to plan. Once they had avoided losing early wickets, the day moseyed along with limited meaning until an anticipated declaration.

But, in the final session, England's approach was racked with caution. India had only achieved more than 300 batting last, in their own country, on four occasions, and had won none of them. And even allowing for the potential brilliance of Sachin Tendulkar, his reputation for greatness has largely been built upon first-innings scores. A declaration should have come half an hour earlier.

England, leading by 131 overnight with all wickets intact, soon lost Marcus Trescothick to Javagal Srinath. With Nasser Hussain initially in frantic mood, and only nine runs coming in the first half-hour, the morning might have run off the tracks had Kumble's first googly - a yorker which Butcher scraped back towards the bowler - fallen to hand.

The luckless Srinath twice found Hussain's edge, only for the ball to drop short of the wicketkeeper - Deep Dasgupta having decided to become Much Too Deep Dasgupta. Four wayward overs from Tinu Yohannan lifted the pressure, Hussain struck Kumble for six to confirm that he had settled, and Ganguly, oddly, failed to turn to Harbhajan's off-spin until 20 minutes before lunch.

The umpire, Ian Robinson, slated in the British media for two bad decisions in England's first innings, was this time erring in their favour, refusing Kumble's leg-before appeal against Hussain (playing no shot and struck on the back leg) and later missing Craig White's bat-pad to slip, also off Kumble, before he had scored.

England's progress in the afternoon was eased by three missed catches. Ganguly drew hoots of derision for fumbling at midwicket after Hussain had skied Harbhajan, and two balls later the cry switched to "Hi Hi Dasgupta" ("Down with Dasgupta") as Harbhajan found Butcher's inside edge, when he was on 59, and heard the by now familiar sound of the wicket-keeper's clanking gloves. He might balance the batting line-up, but his keeping has been atrocious.

Hussain eventually fell for 50, gloving Harbhajan to short leg, before the loss of three wickets in 15 balls, on the stroke of tea, slowed England's progress.

Mark Ramprakash swept Harbhajan out of the rough and was caught at short fine leg. Freddie Flintoff has dealt entirely in boundaries in his four Test innings to date - unfortunately there have been nowhere near enough of them - and here after one muscular drive he chopped on to his stumps, cutting Kumble's top-spinner. Butcher then cut at Harbhajan and fell at slip.

With the lead 299 at tea, and five wickets left, there was cause for some reassessment, but England overdid it. Even then, it was understandable; Michael Vaughan's health was even worse than Butcher's, which made his unbeaten 31 as productive a contribution as could be expected.

When India batted, however, it could not be overlooked that nothing happened.