ENGLAND are delighted to have put themselves in a winning position against West Indies – and determined to be ruthless in pursuit of a 2-0 npower series success today.

Stuart Broad, who took two of the biggest wickets among the 10 England chiselled out on the fourth day of the second Test at Riverside, is confident they have it in them to take another seven on the final day.

West Indies closed last night on 115 for three, still 144 runs short of making England bat again to take the Wisden Trophy in style, and were most indebted to Ramnaresh Sarwan (100) and Denesh Ramdin (55) in their first innings and captain Chris Gayle (54) after following on.

Broad cited James Anderson’s sixth five-wicket haul in Tests and Graham Onions – who recovered from leaking 27 runs in three overs, mainly to Gayle, to take his and then Sarwan’s wicket – as the main contributors to England’s success.

“We’re delighted to have picked up 10 wickets today on what is still a pretty decent batting track,” he said.

“Seven wickets tomorrow is certainly in our sights.

“There’s no rush to get them all before lunch – it’s still a wicket you need to be pretty patient on – but if the weather stays right for us, we have to be ruthless enough to take our chance.”

Anderson (five for 87) added two more wickets this afternoon to yesterday’s three, while Onions had to wait into the evening for any joy.

“Gayle came out and played fantastically well.

“If you pitch it up it’s got a good chance of going back over your head – so it’s always pretty awkward,” said Broad.

“But Graham Onions got two huge wickets for us there – and as a bowling unit, we are delighted with our day’s work.

“We bowled well in partnerships, and Jimmy’s ’five-for’ was absolutely fantastic.”

Broad himself got Sarwan, with a bouncer straight after his century, and Shivnarine Chanderpaul first time round – and the first of those in particular was a case of a plan working out well between bowler and captain Andrew Strauss.

“I’ve found throughout the winter I’ve managed to tie Chanderpaul up a little bit round the wicket – so it was always the plan to do that again if the ball was not swinging,” he explained.

“Luckily, the off-cutter just managed to grip a little bit and caught a fine edge.

“When Sarwan got into the 90s he was playing really well, and it was quite hard to unsettle him.

“Straussy and I had a little chat – and he said ‘how are your energy levels?’ I said ‘fine’, and he said maybe try a bit of bouncer warfare with him and try to get him to play a bit of a false shot.”

Broad was also happy to help Anderson deliver a barrage of short balls at Windies tailender Fidel Edwards, who has taken it upon himself to target the Lancastrian in recent encounters.

“Fidel ups it about seven or eight miles an hour every time Jimmy comes in,” Broad confirmed.

“I don’t think those two will send one another Christmas cards!

“Obviously, it’s not nice to see one of your own bowlers getting bombed – so it was nice to give a couple back, I suppose.”

Sarwan will have no say today in whether the West Indies can salvage a draw, and some pride.

But he is optimistic that they will, with Chanderpaul among others still in situ.

“We just need to concentrate. I think if we apply ourselves we should be able to draw the game on a good batting pitch,” he predicted.

“I don’t think there’s too much happening with the wicket – so I think we have an outstanding chance.

“It’s only when it gets a bit overcast that the ball tends to do a bit.”