Zak Crawley hit his second Test hundred as England dominated West Indies on day four of the first Test to set up an outside chance of victory in Antigua.
Crawley capitalised on a lifeless Antigua pitch to make an unbeaten 117, while captain Joe Root reached 84 not out at the close.
England were 217-1, leading by 153 runs, when rain brought an early finish.
Earlier they took just three deliveries to claim the final West Indies wicket as the hosts were dismissed for 375 with a first-innings lead of 64.
But, despite the early loss of debutant Alex Lees for six, Crawley and Root wiped out the deficit and batted England into the ascendancy with a mammoth unbeaten stand of 193.
The tourists, who have struggled for large parts of the Test, now look the more likely side to win.
However, the placid nature of pitch means any quest to bowl out West Indies on the final day will be a struggle.
In this three-match series, England are bidding to improve on a dreadful run which has seen them win just one of 14 Tests.
The pitch is very helpful to batting and the opposition modest but this day revealed a hint of what England will hope for during this much-talked about red-ball reset.
What little danger there is in the surface - just a hint of uneven bounce - was neutered by 24-year-old Crawley and Root, 31, and afterwards they progressed calmly with ease.
The West Indies attack, without any express pace or world-class spin, was as blunted as England’s had been across the previous two days.
Crawley and Root began to up their scoring late on, with England starting to look to set up a declaration.
The only wickets to fall all day were Jack Leach’s lbw dismissal of West Indies number 11 Jayden Seales and the fall of Lees, who, as in the first innings, went lbw missing a straight ball from round the wicket by seamer Kemar Roach.
Scores:
England 311 and 217 for 1 (Zak Crawley 117 not out, Joe Root 84 not out)
West Indies 375 (N Bonner 123, Ben Stokes 2 for 42, Jack Leech 2 for 79)