Lunch England 507 for 9 dec and 185 for 6 dec (Lawrence 41, Crawley 40, Bairstow 29) lead West Indies 411 (Brathwaite 160, Blackwood 102) by 281 runs
England have set West Indies 282 to win in a minimum of 65 overs, after declaring during lunch on the final day of the second Test in Barbados.
Partnerships worth 51 runs each for the first and fifth wickets took England to 185 for 6 in their second innings, with Zak Crawley and Dan Lawrence reaching the 40s, but captain Joe Root left the opposition waiting until ten minutes before the resumption before, as expected, backing his bowlers to take 10 wickets in the final two sessions.
Some enterprising yet unselfish batting interspersed by a couple of rain interruptions gave way to England biding their time before another squall arrived just before the scheduled lunch break.
Having resumed 136 runs ahead with Crawley and Alex Lees intact and England 40 for 0, the tourists lost three wickets inside the first half hour or so before the first, brief, rain stoppage.
Apart from a couple of Jack Leach deliveries which turned sharply, there were no real signs of the pitch breaking up on day four, but Jason Holder offered some promise to the bowlers on both sides, twice finding some steepling bounce off the surface in one over which had Crawley on the hop.
But it was their attempts to raise the tempo which brought Lees and Root undone as both fell slog-sweeping Veerasammy Permaul, Lees picking out Alzarri Joseph and Root failing to connect fully and sending a top edge to John Campbell at deep midwicket.
Joseph chimed in with the wicket of Crawley, beautifully caught by Jayden Seales, who ran in from long leg and dived forward to pouch the chance in mid-air.
When the players left the field for about 10 minutes as a shower swept through, England were 76 for 3, leading by 172 and with hopes of Lawrence and Ben Stokes piling on some quick runs at the resumption.
They did just that, with Stokes crashing a four through extra cover and lofting the next ball over deep midwicket for six in one Kemar Roach over which went for 17 runs in all. In the next, Lawrence thumped Joseph in the same direction for a maximum before a second bout of rain arrived, this time halting play for around 40 minutes.
Stokes fell shortly after the re-start without impacting the scoreboard much further, shaping to drive a wide Roach half-volley but sending the ball straight to Kraigg Brathwaite at cover.
Roach and Joseph looked to keep a lid on things by targeting a yorker length, but Lawrence and Jonny Bairstow picked their moments, the latter bludgeoning consecutive sixes off Joseph over deep backward square and down the ground.
As England's lead neared the 250-mark, Lawrence took it beyond when Seales came into the attack and saw his first ball smashed into the stands at long-on. Bairstow brought up their fifty stand with a single and departed moments later, having added 29 runs from just 25 balls when he sent Seales' fifth ball of the day to Roach, running in from long-off and stooping low to take the catch.
Lawrence leapt in the air and almost lost his balance trying to heave Seales to the on side but he succeeded only in finding the safe hands of Joseph at long-on to end with 41 runs from 39 balls.
Valkerie Baynes is a general editor at ESPNcricinfo
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