England face a testing final day in the women's Test in Delhi after being set a target of 311 by India.

They were 3-0 at close of play after the home side declared on 175-4, but a win appears unlikely with runs hard to come by on a slow, low bouncing pitch.

A ninth wicket stand of 50 between Beth Morgan (23) and Jane Smit (21 not out) enabled England to total 154 in their first innings and avoid the follow-on.

Seam bowler Jhulan Goswami was the pick of India's attack with 5-25.

England were handicapped in the field by the absence of Katherine Brunt, who will take no further part in the game because of a broken hand.

Related story: Brunt out of tour

And although skipper Charlotte Edwards and her team kept things tight, wickets were hard to come by as India pressed on towards the declaration.

Laura Harper followed her five-wicket haul on the second day by having Monica Sumra caught behind for 11 and Edwards took a return catch to remove Jain for 35 before the tea interval.

Rosalie Birch was England's most successful bowler, taking 2-14 from six overs as she dismissed Mithali Raj (25) and Dhar (30) with the help of catches by Arran Brindle and Lydia Greenway.

But Jhulan Goswami (34) and Anjum Chopra (31) shared an unbroken partnership of 70 to incrases the lead beyond 300.

The England openers had four overs to survive before the close and did so successfully with Edwards two not and Newton on one.

"They were the longest four overs of my life. It gets quite dark over here and we were facing Jhulan pretty much in the smog and there was loads of smoke coming across the ground," Edwards told ecb.co.uk.

She added: "It's really important that we see off the new ball in the morning.

"If we can get in and stay in then hopefully by tea it might be set up quite nicely but we�ve got a lot of hard work to do before then."

England's batting highlight came during the morning session when Morgan and Smit held up India for an hour and a half after Birch had been lbw to Goswami, who had figures of 5-25.

Morgan was eventually caught behind just one run short of her best score in Test cricket, 24 made against Australia at Worcester during the summer.