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 over 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 - he has not announced the date of his retirement but India are not scheduled to tour again until 2011 - Pietersen emerged as a potential candidate to claim his crown.

In conditions where nearly every other batsman struggled for rhythm, Pietersen dominated and 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 and ensuring India would have to make their highest total ever in a fourth innings to win a game, eclipsing the 264 for three recorded against Sri Lanka at Kandy in 2001-2002.

His display, which included a six 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.

Left-arm 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.

It was a precarious position against a side containing the batting talents of Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman, which was further underlined by England's long tail.

But Pietersen responded to the situation superbly, dominating a 119-run stand with wicketkeeper Matt Prior which left India's fielders looking demoralised and increasingly frustrated at their failure to remove him earlier.

India did have a half chance to dismiss him on 34 when new batsman Ian Bell called for a quick single to get off the mark after clipping Singh to mid-wicket but Dinesh Karthik's throw at the stumps missed with Pietersen short of his ground.

That, though, was the last chance Pietersen gave during the crucial partnership with 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 and joined an illustrious group of England players to suffer the same fate including Graham Gooch.

Singh finished off England's innings to finish with five for 59, including inducing Pietersen to play on, but he was the only India player to trouble the Lord's engravers.

Chasing an historic victory target, India began well with Karthik reaping the rewards for making technical adjustments to his stance and dominating a 38-run opening stand.

England make the breakthrough with Wasim Jaffer clipping Jimmy Anderson straight to Pietersen at mid-wicket and Tremlett followed up three overs later by winning a fortuitous lbw decision when Dravid was hit outside the line of off-stump.

His demised brought Tendulkar to the crease, which heightened the expectations of the Lord's crowd hoping for one last magical innings from the little master.

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 onto his pads to earn the lbw decision.

Having slipped to 84 for three, the momentum was back with England but instead they were frustrated by a determined Karthik, who progressed to a deserved half-century after nearly three hours at the crease.

England had one further chance to make inroads with former India captain Sourav Ganguly being missed at short leg by Bell off Panesar on 12 and he went on to score an unbeaten 36.

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 today's for years to come.