Birmingham, Aug 12: Alastair Cook became the highest run-scorer at Edgbaston with a superbly compiled 294 runs on Day 3 of the third Test between England and India. Batting for over two days, he more than made up for his lack of runs in the first two Tests against India; he was, however, unfortunate to miss out on a triple century, falling to an aerial shot caught by Suresh Raina off Ishant Sharma’s bowling. The left-handed opener powered England to a 486-run lead, giving England a chance to inflict an innings defeat over India.

Asked to bat in the final session after the England declaration, India lost their first wicket on the second ball of the innings as James Anderson claimed Virender Sehwag. Sehwag is only the second opener in the history of Test cricket to get a king pair and the 13th batsman to suffer this dubious fate. Meanwhile, Rahul Dravid, who replaced him at the crease, became the first batsman in Test cricket to score 10,000 runs while batting at No 3.

At stumps on Day 3, India were on 35 runs for the loss of one wicket in 12 overs with Gautam Gambhir and Dravid at the crease.

The third day of the third Test was not much different from the second day England continued their run fest making the Indian attack look hapless.

Alastair Cook reached his second double century and Eoin Morgan reached his fifty before rain interrupted play during the first session of the day. The duo patiently continued to accumulate runs and had reached the 100-run mark in their partnership when lunch was called as rain hit play again. England were 503 at lunch, without the loss of any wickets, in the first session.

England have now reached the 500-run mark for the 52nd time at home and lost only twice after putting up over 500 runs on the board – both times to Australia. In the process, they also equalled West Indies’ record of scoring 500 plus runs 16 times against India. Australia are the only team to lose Test against India after scoring over 500 runs in the first innings (Adelaide in 2003).

A few overs after lunch, play was halted due to bad light as a power-cut prevented floodlights from coming on. But nothing could spoil England’s party. Morgan reached his century and Cook surpassed his previous highest score of 235 not out post lunch. Soon after Morgan had registered the second century of his career, the southpaw was caught at cover by Virender Sehwag off Suresh Raina for 104 runs. By then, the two left-handers - Cook and Morgan - had added 222 runs for the fourth wicket.

The fall of Morgan’s wicket brought some respite for India as two more English wickets fell in quick succession. Amit Mishra first trapped Ravi Bopara for seven runs and a little later a brilliant running catch by Sachin Tendulkar sent back Matt Prior for five runs. The second session of the day was by far the most productive one for India, yielding three wickets. England were on 646 runs for the loss of six wickets at tea.

The hosts went about their business in the final session of the day. As Cook, batting on 284, inched closer to his maiden triple century, bad light briefly stopped play again. But Cook eventually missed the landmark when play resumed thanks to a fantastic catch by Raina running in from the deep. The Indian contingent charitably applauded Cook as he walked off the field after his stupendous batting effort.

With the dismissal of Cook, Andrew Strauss called back his troops and declared England’s first innings on 710 runs. Tim Bresnan remained unbeaten on 53 runs at the end of England’s innings.

Brief Score (At the end of Day 3): India 1st innings 224 all out in 62.2 overs (MS Dhoni 77, G Gambhir 38, S Broad 4/53, T Bresnan 4/62), England 1st innings 710/7 in 188.1 overs (Alastair Cook 294, E Morgan 104, Andrew Strauss 87, A Mishra 3/150, P Kumar 2/ 98); India 2nd innings 35/1 in 12 overs (R Dravid 18*, G Gambhir 14*, J Anderson 1/18)