Tendulkar (185 not out), whose ton took him above Don Bradman into second in the all-time list, shared a third-wicket stand of 150 with Rahul Dravid (148).

That proved to be merely an appetiser to a record 249 for the fourth with his captain Sourav Ganguly (128), which included a fearsome onslaught in semi-darkness of 96 runs in 11 overs against the third new ball on the way to 584 for four.

Dravid, Tendulkar and Ganguly effortlessly farmed a regular stream of boundaries as England's pace attack continued to under-perform in apparently favourable conditions.

Dravid and Ganguly's were the only wickets to fall - the former stumped off Ashley Giles and the latter eventually bowled backing away for another big hit at Alex Tudor to bring some much-needed respite for England by way of an early close because of the ever worsening light.

There were 23 fours in Dravid's 307-ball innings, while Ganguly hit three sixes and 13 fours in only 167 balls.

Tendulkar ploughed on mercilessly for 321 balls, hitting three sixes and 18 fours for his highest score against England.

His first first-class hundred on this ground left him behind only his fellow Indian great Sunil Gavaskar in terms of number of Test centuries, and he also went above David Gower into seventh in the all-time list of highest runscorers.