Bell, Ballance pile on runs against India in third Test

SOUTHAMPTON, United Kingdom, July 28, 2014 (AFP) -Ian Bell ended his century drought in style after Gary Ballance made his Test-best score as England piled on the runs against India in the third Test at Southampton on Monday.

Bell made 167 and Ballance 156 before Test debutant Jos Buttler rode his luck to make 85 as England captain Alastair Cook declared on 569 for seven.

India then saw struggling opener Shikhar Dhawan caught by Cook at first slip off James Anderson for six.

However, Murali Vijay (11 not out) and Cheteshwar Pujara (four not out) survived until stumps, with India 25 for one at the close on the second day -- a deficit of 544 runs.

Bell´s hundred was his 21st Test century but his first in 20 innings, with the 32-year-old Warwickshire batsman having last got to three figures at this level when making 113 against Australia in Durham in August last year.

His innings also took Bell into the top ten of England´s all-time leading Test run-scorers with 7,068 runs in 103 matches.

England, 1-0 down in the five-match series and without a win in their previous 10 Tests, resumed Monday on 247 for two. Zimbabwe-born left-hander Ballance was 104 not out -- his third hundred in six Tests.

Ballance soon surpassed his previous highest Test score of 110, made last time out at Lord´s, with three fours in four Bhuvneshwar Kumar balls.

Later, Ballance pulled Singh to the boundary to get to 150 in 278 balls with 23 fours. But soon afterwards the 24-year-old was given out, caught behind off the gentle spin of Rohit Sharma, the recalled batsman taking his first Test wicket.

Bell, after England lost Joe Root and Moeen Ali cheaply early in the second session, reached his hundred in style by driving left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja for six. Bell eventually holed out off Kumar, having batted for nearly six hours, facing 256 balls with 19 fours and three sixes.

Buttler made India pay with the kind of quickfire innings that has already made him England´s wicketkeeper-batsman in limited overs cricket, driving Jadeja for six to take England to 500. Jadeja, one of four India bowlers to concede more than a hundred runs, eventually had his revenge when Buttler played on, the signal for Cook to declare. By then Buttler had scored 85 off just 83 balls with nine fours and three sixes.