Vaughan eventually fell towards the back-end of an elongated third day after a 258-ball innings which included 23 boundaries.

Having batted for six hours, he edged a drive behind to Parthiv Patel from Ajit Agarkar as England reached 341 for five before bad light stopped play nine overs from the end.

He offered just one genuine chance throughout when Patel spilled a chance down the leg-side off Harbhajan Singh in the over before lunch.

In the 90s the Yorkshire batsman flashed desperately close to the diving Wasim Jaffer at gully but otherwise his shot selection was immaculate.

Vaughan held things together when Harbhajan Singh struck twice in quick succession in mid-innings to get rid of Mark Butcher (53) and Nasser Hussain (three) within six deliveries.

Butcher's wicket - caught at first slip by Rahul Dravid - ended a second-wicket stand of 165 with Vaughan.

Hussain soon followed as an attempted sweep popped up off the glove to provide Patel with his first international victim.

Vaughan was joined by John Crawley and they added 44 before Crawley (22) was adjudged to have inside-edged onto his pad off Zaheer Khan for Jaffer to take a straightforward chance running in from point.

Alec Stewart fluently made 30 off 40 balls in a partnership of 63 with Vaughan before play was surprisingly ended by bad light, even though none of the lights on the scoreboard were lit.