New Delhi: India made 338 runs in its first innings thanks to a masterly 95 by skipper Rahul Dravid and a fighting half-century by Irfan Pathan.
The hosts have taken a lead of 38 runs and with just over four session of play left it will be to the two skippers to take some bold decisions to bring some life back into the match.
England opened its second innings with Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook and soon Munaf Patel got into the wicket taking act when he had Cook caught behind by Mahendra Singh Dhoni for just two.
The second wicket pair of Strauss and and Ian Bell steaded the innings and had added 43 runs when Anil Kumble struck.
Strauss tried to sweep Kumble but the ball went onto his boots after hitting the bat and Dhoni took an easy catch.
After that it was the turn of Harbhajan Singh to be among the wickets after along time.
Harbhajan had Pietersen caught by Dravid at the leg slip when the batsman tried to sweep him.
Kumble kept up his good work with the ball to pick up two more wickets to end the day with the England score at 112 for the loss of five wickets.
He first sent back Paul Collingwood caught by Dravid for 14 and then Ian Bell fell when he edged the ball into the gloves of Dhoni after making 57 runs.
The two not out batsmen were Andrew Flintoff on 16 and Geraint Jones on one.
Bad weather has already robbed the Mohali Test of much excitement but on the fourth day the Indian batsmen took it on themselves to provide all the drama for the cricket fans.
After a stupendous feat by Anil Kumble on Saturday, when he crossed the 500-wicket mark in Test cricket to become the first Indian to do so, the Indian batsmen soured his celebration with an inept display at the crease.
At the end of Day III India had managed to crawl to 149 for the loss of four wickets in 54 overs.
When the play started on Sunday, bad light soon intervened to stop the match.
After the resumption of play Dhoni hit a sweetly timed four but that proved to be flash in the pan.
Steve Harmison sent down a snorter and Dhoni could not get out the way and the ball kissed his gloves with Geraint Jones doing the needful behind the stumps.
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With the visitors total of 300 still just a blip on the horizon, Dravid put his best foot forward.
And he did a good job along with Pathan but just like his debut match at the Lords nearly 10 years ago, Dravid was unlucky to miss his century by just five runs.
Stand-in England skipper Andrew Flintoff forced Dravid, who was on 95 with the help of 10 fours, to play early to an incoming ball that uprooted his leg stump.
Pathan, too, was send back by Flintoff but not before he had shown his more accomplished team mates how to bat on a pitch that has no devil.
He scored 52 runs off 58 balls with the help of five fours and one six and was caught by Paul Collingwood at backward point.
At the stroke of lunch India were still 31 runs behind England's total of 300 with Anil Kumble batting on 10 and Harbhajan Singh on seven.
After the lunch-break Harbhajan and Kumble took India past the 300-run mark
But Flintoff, enjoying a good day with the ball, took his fourth wicket of the match when he forced Harbhajan, who was on 36 with the help of seven fours, to edge a short and lifting delivery behind the stumps into the hands of Geraint Jones.
Then the man of the match of the first Test at Nagpur, Matthew Hoggard, struck to send back debutant Piyush Chawla, caught by Collingwood at point, for one.
The last man and another debutant, Munaf Patel played and entertaining innings and even hit a straight six of Hoggard.
However Liam Plunkett took his first wicket of the match when he rattled the stumps of Kumble to bring the Indian innings to an end at 338 with Munaf remaining unbeaten on 11.
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