PHOTOS: England sight win; Anderson celebrates birthday with fiver

India, chasing 445 for an unlikely victory, were struggling at 112-4 at close on the fourth day of the third Test against England in Southampton on Wednesday.

- Scorecard

The visitors lost four of their front line batsmen with a full day left.

Ajinkya Rahane (18) and Rohit Sharma (8) were batting when stumps were drawn.

Earlier, James Anderson took his first five-wicket haul for more than a year as England bowled India out but didn't enforce a follow on.

Anderson, celebrating his 32nd birthday, finished with figures of five for 53 as he dismissed both Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Mohammed Shami in the space of six balls, before captain Alastair Cook opted to bat again despite dismissing India for 330, 40 runs adrift of the follow-on target.

Half-centuries from back-to-form Cook and Joe Root then enabled England to declare their second innings at 205-4, setting India 445 to win.

India, 1-0 up in the series, will have to chase down a world-record total to win, with England needing 10 wickets to earn a first victory in 11 outings.

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In the morning session, Anderson kicked off his birthday celebrations by dismissing Dhoni and Shami in the space of six balls as India collapsed from 323-8 to 330 all out.

Dhoni failed to add to his overnight score of 50, while Shami (5) was caught by wicketkeeper Jos Butler, giving Anderson his fifth wicket.

The 32-year-old now has 369 wickets in 97 Tests.

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Alastair Cook (70 not out), who scored successive fifties in a Test match for the first time since 2011, played superbly with Root (56) as England exerted control over the tourists by declaring for the second time in the match.

Ian Bell (23) fell soon after lunch, but England then accelerated, with both Cook and Root playing fluid strokes to the boundary.

The England captain had made 95 in the first innings.

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Root scored a sparkling 50 as he and Cook dominated the Indian bowlers, dispatching them brutally to all sides of the ground.

It was his sith Test fifty.

The young right-hander was bowled by Ravindra Jadeja for 56, off just 41 balls, prompting Cook to declare and tea to be taken early.

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Gary Ballance (38), the first-innings' centurion, arrived at the crease and played with a little more urgency than his skipper.

However, he was again a victim of a poor decision when he was given out by umpire Marais Erasmus, caught off Jadeja at short leg despite no hint of an edge.

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Chasing an improbable target of 445, India were tottering at 112 for four at stumps. 

India still require 333 on the final day but more realistically have little chance of preventing England from equalizing the series with only six wickets in hand. 

With Murali Vijay (12), Shikhar Dhawan (37), Cheteshwar Pujara (2) and Virat Kohli (28) back in the confines of the dressing room , the remaining batsmen need to bat out of their skin in order to save the match. 

Moeen Ali was the pick of the England bowlers with figures of two for 33, picking up the wickets of Pujara and Kohli.