Half-centuries to Zak Crawley and Joe Root in an unbroken century stand guided England to an 82-run lead at tea on day four of the first Test against West Indies.
Crawley had to wait out a 10-minute rain delay and Alzarri Joseph maidens either side of it on 49 before he regained the strike from captain Root and flipped Kemar Roach off his hip for a single to bring up his fifty off 100 balls.
Caught behind off Jayden Seales for just 8 in the first innings, Crawley tightened up his defence but played expansively where it was warranted, pulling the short ball to the boundary with authority, picking off back-to-back fours off Veerasammy Permaul and finding the rope 11 times in all as he went to the break on 79 not out.
Root raised his half-century late in the afternoon session with a four off Permaul through third, and, a short time later, Crawley survived a hearty shout by West Indies, thinking they'd had him caught at slip off Permaul, but replays showed he had edged the ball into the pitch before it bobbed up to the fielder. Root was unbeaten on 55 at the interval with their second-wicket partnership worth 122 so far.
Roach had struck early as England set about overhauling a 64-run first-innings deficit, claiming the wicket of Alex Lees, lbw in single figures for the second time in the match, to put the tourists at 24 for 1, still 40 runs in arrears.
But West Indies failed to capitalise on Lees' dismissal. By lunch England had moved back into the lead - by eight runs - with Crawley looking solid, and he and Root added 74 runs in the second session without loss.
Roach, who was getting considerable swing with the new ball on the fourth morning, set Lees up with a series of deliveries that moved away from the left-hander before banging one in full and straight to beat the inside edge and slam into the front pad. Lees reviewed, perhaps in hope after seeing Crawley successfully overturn an lbw decision from umpire Gregory Brathwaite in the first over, only to have it confirmed that the ball was crashing into leg stump.
Crawley was yet to score when he was reprieved the first time, with Hawk-Eye showing the ball was missing leg stump by some way. He had moved to 18 when West Indies burned a review shortly after Lees' dismissal when Crawley was adjudged not out to a Roach inswinger that hit him high on the back leg outside off stump.
Earlier, Jack Leach picked up the final West Indies wicket with the third ball of the day. Just two runs - byes - were added to West Indies' overnight score before Leach trapped Seales lbw for an eight-ball duck with one that struck the back leg in line with middle and off. Seales had played inside the line but chanced a review, unsuccessfully.
England couldn't have hoped for a better start to the day, having endured a tough time in the field on Thursday when they went a bowler down through an elbow injury to Mark Wood and Nkrumah Bonner ground out an attritional 123 over the course of nine hours and 355 balls.
Bonner had lifted the home side from a mini collapse to 127 for 4 after Kraigg Brathwaite and John Campbell's 83-run opening stand. He shared partnerships in the 70s with Jason Holder and Joshua Da Silva as well as valuable 40-plus stands with Roach and Permaul to rebuild the innings.
