IMAGE: England's Harry Brook celebrates reaching his century. Photograph: John Sibley / ReutersJoe Root compiled a stylish century to lead England to 425 all out and set West Indies a victory target of 385 at tea on the fourth day of the second test at Trent Bridge on Sunday.
Root made 122, his 32nd test hundred, after Harry Brook plundered a rapid 109 to give the hosts a good chance of sealing victory in the three-test series.
Resuming in the afternoon session on 348-6, Root reached three figures with a crisp drive to the cover boundary off Alzarri Joseph.
Chris Woakes fell for 12 and Root's innings ended when he drove Jason Holder straight to Kirk McKenzie at cover having passed West Indian Shivnarine Chanderpaul to climb to eighth on the all-time list of leading test run scorers.
Brook scored a fluent 109, including 13 fours, off 132 balls and shared a fourth-wicket partnership of 189 with Joe Root which put England in control of the match.
IMAGE: England's Harry Brook in action. Photograph: Kind courtesy BCCI/IPLRoot was 81 not out at the interval after captain Ben Stokes fell for eight, caught at deep square leg by Alzarri Joseph off Jayden Seales and Jamie Smith edged the last ball of the session to wicketkeeper Joshua Da Silva off spinner Kevin Sinclair.
IMAGE: West Indies' Kevin Sinclair celebrates after taking the wicket of England's Jamie Smith. Photograph: John Sibley / ReutersBrook reached his fifth test hundred with a quick single to mid-on before removing his helmet and raising his bat to the crowd, but he soon edged a delivery from Seales to Da Silva.
IMAGE: England's Ben Stokes in action. Photograph: John Sibley / ReutersRoot passed West Indian Shivnarine Chanderpaul to move up to eighth on the all-time list of leading test run scorers, and he will need to shepherd the tail-enders for England to set West Indies a tough victory target with five sessions of the match remaining.
England won the first test at Lord's by an innings and 114 runs.