Ralph Dellor reports on day four of the rain-affected Bangalore Test 28-56k

You can have floodlights to pierce the gloom, acres of covering and a flotilla of super-soppers but, if it rains as it did for most of the fourth day in Bangalore, there is little that can be done to overcome the elements.

When play did begin in mid afternoon, England did their best to make up for lost time. Andrew Flintoff and Matthew Hoggard took just eight and a half overs to polish off the Indian tail for both to finish with their best Test figures. Then the opening batsmen, Mark Butcher and Marcus Trescothick, set about the Indian attack to extend the first innings lead of 98 by a further 33 runs before the rain returned.

There were chances to wrap up the Indian innings even quicker than was the case. In the first over of the session, Hoggard found the outside edge of Anil Kumble's bat, only to see substitute fielder Martyn Ball, on for Mark Butcher, fail to grasp a low chance at slip.

Hoggard himself was guilty of spurning another chance, this time off Flintoff. An involuntary top edge by Harbhajan Singh, who has his own idiosyncratic style of batting, flew to long leg where Hoggard appeared to have got it, but let the ball slip from his grasp.

It was Flintoff who claimed Kumble's wicket. Another outside edge, but this time Marcus Trescothick made no mistake at second slip. Flintoff could have picked up another wicket when Sarandeep Singh was struck on the pad right in front. The bowler, however, had overstepped and the umpire was quite right to call the no ball.

Harbhajan was ninth out, sending a leading edge from Hoggard into the covers where Nasser Hussain dived forward to get both hands to a good catch. The end was not long in coming. Sarandeep pushed the ball into the covers, went for a single, but Michael Vaughan swooped, picked up and threw down the wicket at the bowler's end in one flowing movement.

Officially, there were 34 overs for England to bat, during which time they would need to score at a frenetic rate in order to extend their lead to proportions that would allow a declaration and time to bowl India out a second time. However, only seven overs and a single ball were possible before the rain returned and the umpires were forced to take the players off.

Butcher and Trescothick made the most of the time available. Javagal Srinath's opening over went for 11 runs as Butcher in particular went after anything that was there to be hit. He reached 23 from 25 balls, Trescothick 9 from 18 as they approached the innings in one-day mode. Butcher put away a couple of boundaries, but both were happy to drop the ball straight down off the bat and run.

The rain was getting heavier all the time, and no sooner had Harbhajan Singh been brought into the attack to replace Sourav Ganguly than that was it for the day.

It looks as if a draw is the only conceivable result for this match leaving India as winners of the series. It will be scant consolation to England that they will be denied the chance of levelling mainly thanks to weather that has been more typical of Birmingham than Bangalore.

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