Sachin Tendulkar en route to his 55 in Manchester on Thursday. (AP)

Manchester: The famed Indian batting line-up collapsed like a house of cards for 212 in 49.4 overs as England tightened their grip over the visitors in the fourth cricket ODI here on Thursday.

With the top order displaying a clear lack of heart, gritty half-centuries by Yuvraj Singh (71, 104b, 5x4, 1x6) and Sachin Tendulkar (55, 86b, 9x4) were the piece de resistance of the Indian innings.

The duo featured in a 71-run stand for the fourth wicket in 17.3 overs. Down the order, Zaheer Khan’s 19-ball cameo of 20 and Piyush Chawla’s unbeaten 13 helped India cross the 200-mark.

The Indians had watched Shah Rukh Khan’s Chak De India on Wednesday. It remains to be seen how much of an inspiration the film had on the players.

For England, the new ball pair of Stuart Broad (four for 51) and James Anderson (three for 38) shared seven wickets among them.

Although Indian captain Rahul Dravid had no hesitation to opt for bat first at Old Trafford, his team was off to a worst possible start.

Sourav Ganguly (9), Dinesh Karthik (4) and Dravid (1) himself were cooling their heels in the dressing room by the 12th over as England plucked three wickets conceding only 32 runs.

The pace battery of Anderson, Broad and Andrew Flintoff blossomed, bowling an excellent opening spell to keep the batsmen on a tight lease. Anderson’s first spell read 5-2-12-1 while Broad was equally brilliant with figures of 6-1-18-1.

And Flintoff, playing on his home ground, also made immediate impression with enviable figures of 5-3-8-1 in the first instalment of his bowling quota.

With runs coming at a premium, India crawled to the halfway mark reaching 76 for three after 25 overs.

England took a 3-1 lead in the seven-match series, beating India by three wickets. The hosts reached 213 for seven in 48 overs. Ajit Agarkar had taken four wickets to reduce England to 114 for seven in the 24th over but Ravi Bopara (43 not out) and Chris Broad (45 not out) staged a solid recovery. The pair added 99 runs in an unbroken eighth wicket stand. Paul Collingwood was the highest scorer with 47.