England look to be on the brink of a 2-0 series victory after West Indies finished day four of the Second Test on 115-3 in their second innings, some 144 runs adrift of the home side’s huge first-innings total.
After starting the day on 94-3, the tourists were dismissed for 310 and then asked to follow on by Andrew Strauss, who saw Graham Onions claim the crucial scalps of Chris Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan before the close of play.
After some fine work from James Anderson on Saturday that left West Indies reeling at 94-3 overnight, Chris Broad stepped up to the mark when having Shivnarine Chanderpaul caught by Matt Prior for 23.
Ramnaresh Sarwan then made his 15th Test century but departed without further troubling the scorers when Broad took his wicket, Tim Bresnan with the catch.
Brendan Nash (10), Jerome Taylor (10), Suleiman Benn (35) and Fidel Edwards (11) followed before Anderson wrapped up the innings by dismissing Denesh Ramdin for 55, the bowler claiming impressive figures of 5-87.
With Paul Collingwood forced into emergency wicketkeeping duties following an injury to Matt Prior, who should be okay after scans revealed no fracture, England forced West Indies to follow-on and continued to exert real pressure.
The tourists reached 53 before Devon Smith was trapped lbw by Graeme Swann and the Test swung decisively England’s way when local boy Onions removed two key figures.
Sarwan (22) was gone lbw and Gayle, after a blazing innings of 53 from 43 balls which included two sixes and six fours, was caught by Strauss to leave West Indies staring down the barrel of a second consecutive defeat.
England now need to take seven wickets on the final day at The Riverside to seal a series victory.