England set West Indies 286 for victory after Joe Root’s 24th century

England pick up the pace to tempt hosts with stiff chase on final afternoon

Lunch West Indies 375 and 4 for 0 need another 282 runs to beat England 311 and 349 for 6 dec (Crawley 121, Root 109)

By the time Root waved his batters in, 22 minutes before the interval, England had moved along from their overnight 217 for 1 to reach 349 for 6, a lead of 285. With a minimum of 71 overs remaining in the day, there was time for four of those before lunch, in which time Kraigg Brathwaite and John Campbell inched along to 4 for 0 without alarm.

The likelihood of forcing victory on an unforgiving surface at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium may be slim – especially given that Mark Wood will play no further part in the match after reporting “acute pain” in his right elbow during an exploratory net session – but the evidence from the morning’s outset was that England always intended to have a dart at West Indies’ brittle batting in the final two sessions.

Alzarri Joseph was the main beneficiary of England’s upping of the ante, as he was belatedly rewarded for a dogged fourth-day display with three cheap scalps, while Kemar Roach and Jason Holder were also in the wickets on a surface that had yielded just 21 breakthroughs over the first 321.2 overs of the match.

Zak Crawley had hinted at the intended strategy after reaching his century on day four, when he insisted that England were “certainly trying to win”. And though he added just four runs to his overnight 117 before losing his off stump to a pinpoint Holder yorker, Crawley’s fighting talk was taken up by his team-mate Dan Lawrence, who strode out at No. 4 with an apparent licence to take the game on.

The longer-term intention of England’s red-ball reset may be to forge a team with the requisite discipline to bat long and set up conventional Test victories. But Lawrence wasn’t about to stand on ceremony as he repeatedly gave himself room outside leg to launch a series of flamboyant drives, including an eye-catching six over long-off off Holder.

Root, 84 not out overnight, had little need for such fireworks. He ticked serenely along to a 188-ball hundred with a diet of singles, including a nudge off his hip from Joseph that prompted the habitual “Roooot!” celebrations from the Barmy Army contingent. It took him clear of Kevin Pietersen to become the second-most prolific century-maker in England’s Test history, behind Alastair Cook. However, he now has 13 hundreds as captain, compared to Cook’s 12 – another new record.

Lawrence had thundered along to 37 from 36 balls when, at the halfway mark of an elongated morning session, he thrashed once too often outside off and squirted a looping catch to gully off Joseph, and suddenly England decided it was time to go for broke.

Two overs later, Root walked across his stumps to be bowled behind his legs by Joseph for 109, and though Ben Stokes seemed to be seeing the ball well enough in his run-a-ball 13, he failed to pick Roach’s slower ball as he skied a slog to long-off one over later.

Ben Foakes then made it three wickets in 10 balls when he inside-edged his second delivery into his own stumps to depart for 1, but Jonny Bairstow and Chris Woakes added 35 more runs in six overs before Root waved them in.