Michael Vaughan celebrates his century against India on Day IV of the second Test at Trent Bridge on Monday. (AFP)

Nottingham: Zaheer Khan produced a devastating spell of fast bowling to spark a dramatic England collapse and put India in sight of victory on the fourth day of the second Test at Trent Bridge here on Monday.

Zaheer picked up five wickets conceding 75 runs including two in three balls at one stage to break England’s resistance and bowl them out for 355 in their second innings, leaving India a meagre target of 73 to win and go 1-0 up in the three-match series.

Skipper Michael Vaughan struck a composed 124 and had seen England wipe out the first innings deficit of 283 runs for the loss of only three wickets, but once he fell, the rest of the batting capitulated.

At stumps, India were 10 for no loss with Dinesh Karthik (6) and Wasim Jaffer (3) at the crease.

England were comfortably placed at 287 for three before Zaheer came up with an inspired spell to remove Vaughan and Ian Bell in alternate deliveries in the final session.

Zaheer, who had earlier given India a major breakthrough by dismissing Andrew Strauss (55), had Vaughan bowled around his legs when the batsman moved across to play a leg-glance and under-edge the ball on to his stumps.

The second ball after that, Bell was struck on the back pad by a sharp in-swinging delivery from the left-arm seamer to be plumb in front.

At it were, England slumped from a comfortable position of 287 for three and lost their last seven wickets for 68 runs.

Zaheer ended up with his career-best match figures of nine for 134, improving on his seven for 88 against Bangladesh in Dhaka two months ago.

Rudra Pratap Singh (2/52) claimed the crucial wickets of Kevin Pietersen (19) and Matt Prior (7) while Anil Kumble (3/104) polished off the tail.

India were also brilliant in catching, particularly Dinesh Karthik who proved his versatility with a low catch at first slip to send back Paul Collingwood and then a high catch to end Monty Panesar’s innings.

Vaughan then brought up his 16th Test half century with a brace of Zaheer. It took him 100 balls and he hit nine fours.

Earlier, Strauss took 15 balls to get off the blocks this morning but he settled down to square drive Sreesanth to the ropes.

Vaughan then broke his 26-ball run drought by playing an uppish shot off Sourav Ganguly over mid-wicket.

Vaughan then completed his 5,000 Test runs as he picked up his 36th run to become the 17th England batsman to do so.

Meanwhile, Simon Taufel has acknowledged that he was “very upset” to have handed a poor decision to Sachin Tendulkar on Sunday. The Aussie umpire, however, backed the Sourav Ganguly decision, saying that he would give that out every time.

Taufel’s comments were conveyed to TV viewers by commentators David Lloyd and David Gower, who discussed the controversial decisions on the fourth morning.

“I always look at the big screen after giving a decision. And the minute I saw the replay of Sachin's dismissal, I knew I got it wrong,” Taufel is reported to have told the commentators.

“However, I would have given Ganguly out every time,” added Taufel. (Agencies)