ANDREW Flintoff admits England's chances of levelling the Test series against India are fading.

India will take a lead of 285 runs into tomorrow's final day of the second Test with six second-innings wickets standing after reaching 134-4 in their second innings today.

England collapsed from 282-6 at the start of play to 302 all out in the morning session, and then saw India patiently build on their first-innings lead before Yuvraj Singh hit a quick-fire 39 not out in the closing stages.

“I think it will be hard for us to force a result from here,” said Lancashire all-rounder Flintoff.

He and Kevin Pietersen had led an England fightback on day three, with Flintoff making a half-century and the captain a brilliant hundred, but when both fell before the end of play it put India back in control and now the tourists need a miracle if they are to level the series before they fly home on Christmas Eve.

“Losing myself and Kevin last night was a big loss for us and we lost wickets this morning,” Flintoff said.

“All we could do was come out with the new ball, try to take some early wickets, and try to have a magic session.

“We'll have to see what happens tomorrow,” said Flintoff. “If there's fog in the morning and bad light at night I don't think there'll be too much for both sides.

“It's going to be difficult to chase anything down, especially if we lose overs in the morning as well.

“To get a result from here, we're going to have to do something pretty special.

“You don't want to be chasing anything more than four and a half (runs) an over, do you?”

Meanwhile, Singh has responded to being called a “pie-chucker” by Pietersen by offering to help the England captain with his bowling.

The India all-rounder was given the label by Pietersen yesterday after he was brought on to bowl as soon as he arrived at the crease in an attempt to unsettle the England skipper.

Pietersen won the battle by hitting 144 and dismissed Yuvraj as a “pie-chucker” and claimed he bowled “left-arm filth”, to underline the success India have had in irritating him.

Yuvraj walked into the press conference after today's play announcing: “Relax, the pie-chucker is here”, and said: “When I woke up this morning and saw the paper I asked what it meant.

“They told me it meant I was a useless kind of a bowler so it shows KP hates getting out to me - getting out to a useless bowler five times is quite useless batting, I would say.

“But he's a phenomenal player and batted like a champion. If you see his record he's got 15 hundreds in 48 Test matches and that's a phenomenal record.

“He tried to get under my skin in the last game and that brought out the best in me and I tried the same and I brought out the best in him. There's good competition on the field but I don't have a habit of washing dirty linen away from the field or in public, but I like that name!

“Myself and KP are good friends off the field but on the field I'm not there to make friends because we're playing for our countries. There's healthy competition out there, there's no bad-mouthing.”

Asked what he thought of Pietersen's off-spin bowling, which he has been unable to demonstrate during this series because of a rib injury, Yuvraj was equally happy to taunt his big rival.

“I've got a better action,” claimed Yuvraj. “His action is useless, but if he works hard on his bowling he can be a good bowler - I'll give him some tips if he comes to me, I'll tell him how to bowl in the rough!”

Scoreboard
Overnight: India 453 (Gambhir 179, Dravid 136). England 282-6 (Pietersen 144, Flintoff 62, Cook 50).
England First Innings
Anderson not out 8
Prior c Dhoni b H Singh 2
Broad b H Singh 1
Swann b Khan 3
Panesar c Gambhir b H Singh 5
Extras (b1 lb7 w1 nb6) 15
Total (83.5 overs) 302
Fall: 1-0 2-1 3-104 4-131 5-280 6-282 7-285 8-290 9-293
Bowling: Khan 21-3-76-3, I Sharma 12-0-55-1, Yuvraj 6-1-20-0, H Singh 20.5-2-68-4, Mishra 24-0-75-2.

India Second Innings
Gambhir not out 44
Sehwag run out 17
Dravid b Broad 0
Tendulkar c Swann b Anderson 5
Laxman run out 15
Y Singh not out 39
Extras (b4 lb3 w5 nb2) 14
Total 4 wkts (50 overs) 134
Fall: 1-30 2-36 3-44 4-80
Bowling: Anderson 15-8-32-1, Broad 11-2-22-1, Flintoff 9-1-16-0, Swann 8-2-20-0, Panesar 7-0-37-0