The 23-year-old produced the outstanding innings of the opening day at Trent Bridge scoring a brilliant 106 as India progressed to a healthy 210 for four when bad light closed in mid-way through the final session of the day with 24 overs remaining.

From the very start of his innings Sehwag had to battle hard having lost opening partner Wasim Jaffer to the eighth ball of the day, chopping onto his stumps from a Matthew Hoggard outswinger which held its line late.

With Hoggard swinging the ball prodigiously, Sehwag needed restraint just to survive before launching a more typical counter-attack containing the full range of his strokeplay later in his innings.

He was supported by Dravid, who seized on a rare loose delivery from Hoggard to get off the mark by cutting for four before he also reverted to a restrained innings as England's all-seam attack struggled to exploit the helpful conditions.

Other than Hoggard, an attack featuring the swing bowling of Dominic Cork, the raw pace of debutant Steve Harmison and the all-round talents of Craig White and Andrew Flintoff, failed to trouble the batsmen as much as they should have done.

Cork conceded 20 runs in his first four overs after being given the new ball in the hope he would make it swing as much as Hoggard and although Harmison, clearly affected by nerves, delivered four successive maidens as his opening spell he was too wayward to threaten a batting pair of this class.

It needed Hoggard to finally make the breakthrough 15 overs later, tempting Dravid (13) into a rare loose shot outside off stump which flew to Robert Key at first slip, who took a low catch and claimed his maiden Test victim.

Now joined by Tendulkar, Sehwag took on Hoggard for the first time after the interval, driving through the covers to bring up his first 50 off 106 balls.

If the first 50 was less than explosive, his second was the exact opposite, launching himself into White's bowling to such an extent that the Yorkshire all-rounder was temporarily withdrawn from the attack after conceding 19 runs in only two overs.

He out-scored Tendulkar, who took 17 balls just to get off the mark, during a 74-run partnership spanning 131 deliveries and both batsmen looked so comfortable that India seemed certain to finish with a formidable total by the end of the day.

Instead, Tendulkar once again failed to make a meaningful score after two failures at Lord's when he chopped Cork onto his stumps, leaving Sehwag with the responsibility of guiding India towards a competitive score.

It was Cork's last meaningful contribution of a disappointing return to England colours after injuring his right knee attempting a run-out later in the final session and he was taken to hospital for an X-ray on the damage.

While England were concerned about the fitness of yet another seam bowler, Sehwag raced into a more attacking mode and with captain Ganguly at the other end to try and calm his more aggressive instincts when he played and missed, he raced to his second 50 off only 58 balls including 17 boundaries.

Their 71-run partnership even had to overcome an almost farcical interruption for bad light even when there was only one light showing on the Trent Bridge scoreboard which invoked the fury of the healthy 11,000 crowd.

Once they returned, Sehwag fell just nine overs after tea when White removed his middle stump just as he was winding up for another huge blow, but by then India appeared to have overcome their earlier problems with the swinging ball and Ganguly teamed up with VVS Laxman in an unbroken 31-run partnership which looked threatening until bad light intervened once again.