Stuart Broad delivered career-best performances with bat and ball to secure another nail-biting victory for England against India under the floodlights at Old Trafford tonight.

The Leicestershire fast bowler continued his impressive progress as a new ball bowler by claiming four for 51 to help dismiss India for 212 despite the tourists winning the toss in the fourth match of the NatWest Series.

But it was his cool composure with the bat, contributing an unbeaten 45 off 73 balls to a match-winning 99-run partnership with Ravi Bopara, which was just as impressive to help England clinch a three wickets victory with 12 balls remaining.

Walking out to bat with England reeling at 114 for seven despite packing their side with eight batsman following the return of all-rounder Andrew Flintoff, Broad's prospects of finishing on the winning side looked bleak.

But with father Chris watching on from the pavilion, Broad hit three fours during his innings and helped forge a record eighth wicket partnership for England in one-day international cricket, overhauling the 76-run stand put together by Paul Nixon and Liam Plunkett against New Zealand at Perth in January.

Bopara finished unbeaten on 43 having also hit three fours in his 82-ball innings and their defiant resistance was also a triumph for England's policy of sticking with their new-look line-up with the two youngest members of the squad guiding England home.

Until their stand it looked like India's decision to recall Ajit Agarkar had paid dividends after his four wickets tore through England's top order and put the tourists on course to draw level in the seven-match series.

Left-arm seamer Zaheer Khan had undermined England's reply from the very first over by knocking back Alastair Cook's middle stump with the fifth ball of their innings.

But after that the stage was set for Agarkar, preferred to seamer Munaf Patel, and he responded brilliantly to claim the key scalps of Matt Prior, Ian Bell, Hampshire star Kevin Pietersen and Flintoff.

Bowling at a quicker pace than he had during the opening two matches in the series - when he conceded 132 runs in 19 overs without success - he used it intelligently to remove both Prior and Pietersen, both caught after being beaten for pace attempting aggressive shots.

Bell, man of the match in two of the last three fixtures, was fortunate to get to 24 having given a sharp chance to Sachin Tendulkar at slip on 10 and then edged just wide of the slip cordon on 14.

His luck ran out, however, when he attempted to leave a delivery which nipped back and clipped his off-stump while Flintoff continued his miserable run of form with the bat by driving loosely to backward point.

By the time Owais Shah had been deceived by the off-spin of Ramesh Powar and captain Paul Collingwood had been run out in a mix-up with Bopara, England had slumped to 114 for seven.

Broad had also played a leading role in limiting India to their total earlier in the day with a four-wicket haul which prevented them passing the average score for a first innings in a one-day international at Old Trafford of 216.

India's innings began in similar style to England's with Broad and James Anderson, this time backed up by Flintoff, reducing them to 32 for three inside the first 12 overs.

Having selected only five specialist batsmen in their line-up, it left the responsibility for guiding India to a competitive total resting with Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh.

Tendulkar had been forced to play within himself by the loss of the early wickets and resisted using the vast array of attacking shots in his armoury because of the situation.

But Yuvraj stopped the rot to help forge a 71-run stand which looked to have laid the platform for India to launch a late onslaught - until Collingwood gambled on the part-time off-spin of Pietersen.

Having progressed to 55 off 86 balls, Tendulkar's concentration was finally broken by a long hop delivered by Pietersen which amazingly he pulled straight to Flintoff on the mid-wicket boundary.

Yuvraj, who did not register his first boundary until his 39th delivery, responded to Tendulkar's loss by going on the offensive and hit 16 off one over from Broad.

England's man-of-the-match responded by claiming two wickets in three balls just two overs later by bowling Yuvraj for 71 with a full-length ball that hit his leg-stump as he made room to hit through mid-wicket.

Two balls later, Ramesh Powar mis-timed an attempted pull high in the air and was caught at gully by Bell and although India's lower order added a crucial 32 in the final five overs, they were unable to reach a more challenging total.

It was a costly failure with Broad and Bopara, who came narrowly close to pulling off a remarkable victory over Sri Lanka during this winter's World Cup, steering England home to give them a 3-1 lead in the series with three matches remaining.