Rohit Sharma and Cheteshwar Pujara held firm for India as they denied England a fresh breakthrough in the third Test at Headingley on Friday.
India were 112-1 in their second innings at tea on the third day, still a huge 242 runs adrift of England's first-innings 432.
Rohit was 59 not out, his second fifty of the series following his fine 83 in a 151-run victory in the second Test at Lord's that put India 1-0 ahead in this five-match series.
Meanwhile Pujara, who played at Headingley for Yorkshire, was 40 not out.
Their second-wicket stand of 78 was exactly as many as India made as a team during a spectacular collapse in the first innings of this match.
England, however, were left to rue being too slow to request a review of an lbw that would have meant Rohit was out for 39 had they got their request within the 15-second time limit.
When KL Rahul was brilliantly caught in the slips by Jonny Bairstow off Craig Overton on the stroke of lunch, India were 34-1.
But England hopes that Rahul's exit would spark another spectacular India slump were quelled by Rohit and Pujara.
Pujara struck Overton for two fours in three balls, a steer through gully followed by a textbook cover-drive.
England seamer Ollie Robinson twice thought he had Rohit lbw in the 30s.
But what looked a good appeal when the opener had made 35 was overturned by an India review that showed the ball missing leg stump.
Worse followed for England when Rohit on 39, with India 73-1, was given not out to a straighter delivery only for home captain Joe Root to be told by the umpires he'd ran out of time when he signalled for a review.
Replays indicated the ball would have hit middle stump.
Sam Curran had no more success in dismissing the second-wicket duo than England's frontline quicks, with Rohit driving the left-arm swing bowler down the ground for four en route to a 125-ball fifty.
England resumed on 423-8 after Root had made 121, his sixth Test century already this year.
But the tail added just nine runs on Friday.
Overton, 24 not out overnight, had hit two fours off successive Mohammed Shami balls before the paceman had him lbw and Jasprit Bumrah bowled Robinson for a duck to end the innings.
Shami was the pick of India's attack, with 4-95 in 28 overs, but a laboured Ishant Sharma bowled 22 wicketless overs for 92 runs and was one of the worst culprits in a sloppy fielding display.
James Anderson, already the most successful fast bowler in Test history, had ripped through India's top order during a first-innings return of 3-6 in eight overs.
He bowled well again on Friday without so far adding to his tally of 629 Test wickets in an attack missing injured fellow quicks Stuart Broad, Jofra Archer, Olly Stone and Mark Wood, with star all-rounder Ben Stokes out of action due to mental health issues.
Rohit had generally been watchful until he uppercut a rare short ball from Robinson over the slip cordon for six.
But Overton, recalled after Wood damaged his shoulder fielding at Lord's, produced a rising delivery that took the shoulder of Rahul's bat with second slip Bairstow, a wicketkeeper by trade, holding a superb left-handed catch as he dived in front of Root at first slip.
