Alastair Cook on Day III of the second Test at Trent Bridge on Sunday. (AP)

Nottingham: India made light of two horrendous umpiring decisions as they ground the English bowling to dust to amass a 283-run lead and put themselves in box seat in the second Test here on Sunday.

Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly were both victims of uncharacteristic mistakes by ICC Umpire of the Year, Australian Simon Taufel, but not before they had ensured India a commanding first innings total of 481.

Sachin, who missed out on a century at Lord’s in the first Test, made amends with a well paced 91 while Sourav hit a brisk 79 in the course of a watchful 96-run partnership between the two.

V.V.S. Laxman was the fifth half-centurion of the innings with a composed 54 and Anil Kumble’s valuable 30 made up for the cheap dismissal of Mahendra Singh Dhoni (5) during an enthralling third day’s play at Trend Bridge.

At stumps, England were 43 for no loss in their second knock, still trailing by 240 runs, with Andrew Strauss (21) and Alastair Cook (17) at the crease.

Sachin, who crossed the 11,000-run milestone on Saturday, was in sight of his 38th Test hundred when he shouldered arms to part-time seamer Paul Collingwood and was struck on the pads outside off-stump.

The ball pitched outside the line and did not nip back enough but Taufel reckoned it would have gone on to hit the stumps. Hawk-eye didn’t agree, though.

Taufel then failed to see the daylight between Sourav’s bat and the ball when the left-hander tried to flick a James Anderson delivery that was going way down the leg side. Dhoni’s early fall meant India were never really able to force the pace.

Monty Panesar, with four for 101 and Chris Tremlett, who picked up three for 80, were the most successful bowlers for the home team.

[Panesar, meanwhile, was named Sport Personality of the Year at the Asian Achievers Awards in London on Saturday.]

England players, who indulged in a lot of chattering with Indian batsmen at Lord’s, were back at it again.

Kevin Pietersen’s few comments from point seemed to upset No.10 Zaheer Khan but the latter responded back. In fact, Zaheer raised his bat and warned Pietersen in no uncertain terms.

But India failed to push England back further, thanks to a few problems Sreesanth had with his run up.

The Kerala seamer was all over the place as he struggled to find his rhythm, as a result of which England motored comfortably at 2.7 runs an over.

With the weather gods being kind yet again, India, resuming at 254 for three, swelled their tally without trouble.

Having overcome a torrid opening spell with the second new ball by Ryan Sidebottom, Sachin settled down to play some gorgeous shots.

Along with Sourav, he denied England any breakthrough in the first session.

Sidebottom’s first spell read an amazing 9-6-7-0, and Sachin had to bring in all his experience into play.

It was a different story at the other end where Sourav was batting with supreme confidence.

The left-hander looked much more assured as he glided Tremlett past point for a boundary before pulling him for a six over mid-wicket to the very next ball as the bowler dug in short.