Kevin Pietersen chose Sachin Tendulkar's farewell Lord's Test appearance to announce himself as a worthy successor as the world's best batsman and put England on course for victory in the opening npower Test.
For the last 18 years of Tendulkar's illustrious Test career he had few rivals to his crown or his record, which has included more than 10,000 runs and 37 centuries, but never a century at the home of cricket.
But on the day 34-year-old Tendulkar played a Test innings at Lord's for the final time Pietersen emerged as a potential candidate for his crown.
In conditions where nearly every other batsman struggled for rhythm, Pietersen scored a brilliant 134 to allow England to set a record Lord's victory target of 380 and by the close of the fourth day India had battled to 137 for three with Tendulkar already dismissed.
Pietersen demonstrated a complete mastery of conditions still favourable to swing bowling, progressing to his ninth Test century.
His display, which included a 6 and 14 fours, was all the more impressive for the contrast with Tendulkar's innings later in the day when he was given a rousing reception walking out to bat only to fall for just 16 to miss out on a place on the honours board.
The pressure, though, had been on Pietersen at the start of the day with England 174 runs ahead on 77 for two needing a major innings from their premier batsman if they were to prevent India fighting their way back into the match.
Seamer Rudra Pratap Singh reminded England of the dangers of complacency by running through their middle order with a spell of three for 10 in 15 balls which left them struggling just 229 runs ahead and five wickets down.
But Pietersen responded superbly, dominating a 119-run stand with wicketkeeper Matt Prior which was only ended when left-arm seamer Zaheer Khan had the Sussex wicketkeeper caught behind for 42.
It was the first of two wickets in as many balls for Zaheer, who bowled Chris Tremlett with his next delivery to ensure he marked his Test debut with a pair.
Singh finished off England with five for 59, including inducing Pietersen to play on.
Tendulkar shined for 41 minutes, including one superb back foot force through the covers for one of his three boundaries off left-arm spinner Monty Panesar which suggested he had a steely determination within him to mark his farewell in style.
But just as he had done in Nagpur last year, when Panesar trapped Tendulkar lbw to claim him as his first Test victim, England's leading left-arm spinner once again ended his hero's dreams with a ball which drifted on to his pads to earn the lbw decision.
The day, though, was all about two batsman with India preparing to say farewell to their master strokemaker in the near future while England hope Pietersen will play many more key innings like yesterday's for years to come.
Myles Hodgson at Lord's First npower Test. Lord's
England won toss
Overnight India 201 (W Jaffer 58; J Anderson 5-42, R Sidebottom 4-65). England 298 (A Strauss 96, M Vaughan 79) and 77-2 England. Second Innings continued M Vaughan b R Singh 30 K Pietersen b R Singh 134 P Collingwood c Laxman b R Singh 4 I Bell b R Singh 9 M Prior c Dhoni b Khan 42 C Tremlett b Khan 0 R Sidebottom c Dravid b Kumble 9 M Panesar lbw b R Singh 3 J Anderson not out 4 Extras (b9, lb1, w2) 12 Total (78.3 overs) 282 Fall 1-40, 2-43, 3-102, 4-114, 5-132, 6-251, 7-251, 8-266, 9-275 Bowling Khan 28-6-79-4, Sreesanth 16-3-62-0, R Singh 16.3-3-59-5, Kumble 17-3-70-1, Tendulkar 1-0-2-0 India. Second Innings W Jaffer c Pietersen b Anderson 8 K Karthik not out 56 R Dravid lbw Tremlett 9 S Tendulkar lbw b Panesar 16 S Ganguly not out 36 Extras (b8, lb3, nb1) 12 Total 3 wkts (41 overs) 137 Fall 1-38, 2-55, 3-84 To bat V Laxman, M Dhoni, A Kumble, Z Khan, R Singh, S Sreesanth Bowling Sidebottom 6-1-20-0, Anderson 12-3-36-1, Tremlett 10-1-29-1, Panesar 13-2-41-1
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