The hosts, replying to the visitors' first innings score of 330 and resuming at the overnight 297 for 8, lost one more wicket -- that of no. 10 batsman Ojha for 3 -- before applying closure to their innings.
Ojha, who had replaced Piyush Chawla after the latter was dismissed in the last over last evening, played on to left arm spinner Monty Panesar at the score of 317.
Ravichandran Ashwin remained unbeaten on 29, by adding 22 runs to his overnight score, off 65 balls and last man Ishant Sharma remained unbeaten on 2 after a 12-minute vigil.
In the remaining time to lunch, England made 17 for no loss in 13 overs, to improve their overall advantage over the home team by 21 runs on a track that did not appear to hold any devils.
At lunch, visiting skipper Alastair Cook (1 off 46 balls) and Nick Compton (14 off 33 balls) were the unbeaten men at the crease after 49 minutes of batting.
India, trailing the visitors 1-2 in the series, would have to bowl out England cheaply in the second innings in order to entertain visions of winning the game and squaring the rubber.
England, on the other hand, can play for a draw by defending stoutly against the home team's bowling attack that lacked penetration in the first innings on a slow wicket of low bounce.
Ojha and Ashwin had resumed this morning as England set out a well-spread out field for the former to take easy singles and give the strike to the lesser recognised batsman.
Ashwin did not take the bait and tried to farm the strike by taking singles off the fifth ball of each over against both Anderson and Swann, who opened the bowling.
