Monty Panesar took five wickets as England tore through India's top order in the final session of day three of the second Test in Mumbai.

India began their second innings after tea 86 runs behind the tourists and got off to a steady start with Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir.

The duo reached 30 before Panesar dismissed Sehwag who pushed an edge into the hands of fellow spinner Graeme Swann at slip.

In came Cheteshwar Pujara, India's batsman of the series, but he was soon on his way back to the pavilion when he lunged at a Swann delivery and inside-edged to the diving Jonny Bairstow at short-leg.

Swann and Panesar continued to provide plenty of turn and bounce that flummoxed the hosts and veteran Sachin Tendulkar couldn't swat away Panesar's delivery in front of the stumps as India plunged to 52-3.

Virat Kohli entered and was looking slightly more comfortable alongside Gambhir before he swiped at a Swann full toss but miscued straight to substitute Joe Root at mid-off.

The first four batsman out had gone for nine, six, eight and seven and Yuvraj Singh couldn't reach double figures either as Panesar got one to bounce that flicked off the glove and into the palms of Bairstow.

With India leading by just six runs at 92-6, Panesar had his fourth wicket of the innings when captain MS Dhoni prodded an edge to Jonathan Trott.

That meant, aside from Gambhir, all of the hosts' primary batsman had been dismissed and Swann and Panesar could have a go at the tail end.

Ravichandran Ashwin was the eighth man in and he surprisingly attacked the spinning duo, reaching double figures quickly.

However, his boldness was soon his undoing as he went for a high cover drive and could only find Samit Patel on the off side to give Panesar his 10-for in the Test.

As wickets continued to tumble at the other end, Gambhir reached 50 with a back-foot cut to the boundary in the final over of the day.

India finished on 117-7, holding a slender lead of 31 runs with Harbhajan Singh joining the dogged Gambhir at the crease.