We will set 350-plus target for India: Collingwood

Chennai, Dec 13 (IANS) England batsman Paul Collingwood said his team would look to set India a 350-plus victory target as the visitors took a 247 run lead on the third day of the first cricket Test here Saturday.

Collingwood's unbeaten 60 along with Andrew Strauss' 73 not out carried England to 172 for three wickets by the close of day's play at M.A. Chidambaram stadium.

Collingwood said the pitch was crumbling and this would make batting on the last two days difficult.

'In India, Test matches seem to start slowly and everything happens on Day 4 and 5. The pitch has started crumbling and is pretty slow. We would like to score another 100 or 150 runs to be in a comfortable position,' he said.

On his batting, Collingwood said: 'I felt quite comfortable out there. It is very satisfying as a player to make a contribution that counts. We stuck to our game plan of taking ones and twos and waiting for the bad balls to put away.'

When asked on whether England had a definite target in mind, Collingwood said: 'We have not really discussed this as a team.'