Vikram Solanki: Selfless innings Photo © Nasir Abdullah CricInfo Ltd.

By the time the sun set over Queen's Park in Grenada, the air was thick with the spicy scent of victory for England A after claiming the third day's honours with bat and ball, in the Busta International Series match against West Indies B.

The lead had extended to 328 and Mark Alleyne must be fancying his chances of bowling out this young West Indies side in good time on the last day to record his first significant victory of the tour and open their Busta account.

The loss of three wickets in the final session was predictable as the instruction went out to step up the run rate to enable an early declaration and give England's bowlers a chance for a pop at the West Indies openers before stumps were drawn.

All the batsmen responded selflessly including Vikram Solanki, who apart from being dropped by skipper Richie Richardson when on 44, played a flawless innings and deserved his hundred but perished unluckily in the pursuit of runs.

Having reached 89, the Worcestershire batsman reached for a wide delivery from David Bernard aiming to smack it to the boundary. Instead, it found the faintest of edges and flew to the wicketkeeper Wayne Phillip. It was Solanki's most inelegant shot of an innings that included 12 boundaries and a super six over extra cover. In all he faced 119 balls but the uncharacteristic nature of his exit reflected a noble commitment to the job in hand.

Ian Ward also lost his wicket to the cause, scampering a chancy second run when substitute fielder Suleiman Benn threw in from third man to the quick taking Phillip to end the innings on 69. He was disgruntled by the umpire's decision but by then he and Solanki had built an outstanding partnership of 125 runs to give Alleyne the luxury of sizing up his declaration without having to contemplate much possibility of defeat.

"I knew we wanted to have ten overs at them but it was quite difficult to score," said Solanki.

"The bowlers were bowling straight and the ball was quite soft so it was hard. I would have liked to get 100 and perhaps I should have gone about it another way.

"In the middle period we needed to get a partnership going though we had been in the box seat right from the start with a first innings lead, we just needed to press home the advantage with a big partnership which Wardy and I managed to do.

"It worked OK because we ran well together. He is brilliant running between the wickets and he ups your running as well and because it was difficult to score it was good that we were able to turn ones into twos. It was classic batting.

"We are in a pretty strong position and the guys are happy with the way things went today, especially picking up those two wickets at the death."

It was an impressive performance by the England A batsmen who throughout their first Caribbean skirmish have looked every inch the professional, enthusiastic unit The Management claimed they were when they left the UK.

And when they had made their contributions, it was the turn of the bowlers. While Silverwood struggled to find his rhythm amid the lengthening shadows, Alex Tudor bowled well, digging out the first two wickets to rewrite the last day's plan.

Having already appealed unsuccessfully for a leg before decision against David Bernard with his first ball, Tudor asked the same question with his next ball, this time louder and received the response he wanted.

West Indies were 0 for one and Kurt Wilkinson and Andrew Gonsalves batted carefully through the next ten overs as the pitch showed signs of uneven bounce. Wilkinson was mortified when he diligence was rewarded with a hopeless bout of bad luck when a ball from Tudor bounced off his body and directly onto his stumps.

That wicket took the score to 35 for two and marked the end of proceedings, with Tudor having lightened England A's load quite markedly for the final day's play.

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