Alistair Cook's tour de force floors India

The opener defied a weary India attack - and the powerless Edgbaston floodlights - in a career-best 294 until he fell an hour before stumps in a total of 710 for seven declared on day three of this third npower Test. Cook faced 545 balls over more than 12-and-a-half hours, before departing in anti-climax to a slash to deep point off Ishant Sharma.

There are therefore still only five Englishmen to have made 300 or more, after Cook batted throughout his country's third-highest innings total.

India, beginning again 486 runs adrift, appeared to have little chance of batting out more than two days to avoid a series-clinching 3-0 deficit which will also see England go above them to become the International Cricket Council's top Test team for the first time.

When Virender Sehwag recorded a king pair - out first ball, as he was in his first attempt on Wednesday - their position seemed still more perilous, but Rahul Dravid and Gautam Gambhir dug in to carry them to 35 for one at stumps.

Cook began the morning on 182 and helped England plough well past the highest score at this venue. His fourth-wicket stand with Eoin Morgan (104) realised 222, and did not falter even when England's unhurried progress was rudely interrupted by a combination of bad light and a mid-afternoon power cut.

Cook was still two runs short of his previous-best 235 not out when umpires Simon Taufel and Steve Davis surprisingly took the players off. Floodlights are in use for this series, but were inoperable when needed as heavy clouds rolled over Birmingham. After an unscheduled and bizarre 15-minute break, the umpires brought the players back out despite no discernible improvement in either the light, or the floodlights. But there was barely a flicker of any malfunction from the inexhaustible Cook, who remained utterly constant as England's sheet anchor. It took him until the 45th over to register his second boundary of the day, a square-drive off Amit Mishra.

Morgan was playing a slightly more adventurous game but still needed 187 balls to record his second Test century as England took no chances in awkward batting conditions under constant cloud cover. By contrast, after Morgan had slapped a catch to cover from Suresh Raina's off-spin, Ravi Bopara back-cut Mishra for a four from only the fifth ball he faced to bring up England's 600.

Sadly for Bopara, given a chance here in the temporary absence of the injured Jonathan Trott, he was to fall for only seven. Matt Prior was the next candidate to play a more attacking game around Cook.But he too fell cheaply to Mishra, mis-sweeping to be well-held by a tumbling Sachin Tendulkar at long-leg, the third England wicket for the addition of only 17 runs. Cook became responsible for the second-longest individual England innings in history, behind only Len Hutton during his all-time national record 364 against Australia at The Oval in 1938.

England did not have it especially easy, however, despite the embarrassingly one-sided statistics on the scoreboard. The admirable Praveen Kumar, and Shantha Sreesanth, regularly found swing - and gave relatively little away - and as India spurned a third new ball for more than an hour, Mishra (three for 150) kept plugging away.

But none could stop Cook, until his solitary misjudgment, which ended a partnership of 97 with Tim Bresnan - whose 72-ball 50 was brought up with a six bludgeoned over long-on off Sharma to also hoist the home 700. India's reply could scarcely have started worse.

Destructive opener Sehwag, summoned into this match after missing the first two Tests with a shoulder injury, was portrayed as the man who might just be able to salvage India's troubled tour. But having gloved a catch behind trying to leave a ball from Stuart Broad first time round, yesterday he went after a wide one from James Anderson and edged to first slip.

Overnight: India 224 (M S Dhoni 77; T T Bresnan 4-62, S C J Broad 4-53). England 456-3 (A N Cook 182 no, A J Strauss 87, K P Pietersen 63).

England First Innings

A N Cook c S K Raina b I Sharma294

E J G Morgan c Sehwag b S K Raina104

R S Bopara lbw b Mishra7

M J Prior c Tendulkar b Mishra5

T T Bresnan not out53

Extras (b11, lb34, w3, nb15, pens 0)63

Total (7 wickets dec, 188.1 overs)710

Fall: 1-186 2-252 3-374 4-596 5-605 6-613 7-710 Did Not Bat: S C J Broad, G P Swann, J M Anderson. Bowling: Kumar 40-13-98-2; Sreesanth 36-4-158-0; I Sharma 37.1-7-159-1; Mishra 43-2-150-3; S K Raina 28-1-83-1; Tendulkar 4-0-17-0

India Second Innings Close

G Gambhir not out14

V Sehwag c Strauss b Anderson0

R Dravid not out18

Extras (lb1, w2, pens 0)3

Total (1 wicket, 12 overs)35

Fall: 1-3 To Bat: S R Tendulkar, V V S Laxman, S K Raina, M S Dhoni, A Mishra, P S Kumar, I Sharma, S Sreesanth. Bowling: Anderson 5-1-18-1; Broad 2-0-7-0; Bresnan 3-0-4-0; Swann 1-0-4-0; Pietersen 1-0-1-0