Close West Indies 394 for 5 (Gayle 204, Chanderpaul 51*, Lara 48) lead New Zealand 373 by 21 runs
scorecard

Chris Gayle's second Test hundred put West Indies in a strong position at the end of the third day in Grenada. The ease with which West Indies batted underlined the docile nature of the wicket and it will take a Herculean effort from their bowlers if they are to bowl New Zealand out again and give themselves enough time to win the match.

Gayle scored with ease before lunch but the usually aggressive Ramnaresh Sarwan was far more circumspect, possibly stung by widespread criticism of his sloppy dismissals in Barbados. Sarwan had laboured to 39 off 108 balls when he tried to take a risky single to Chris Harris at extra cover and was run out (128 for 2).

Gayle, 88 not out at lunch, became becalmed after the interval, scoring just eight runs in an hour. Brian Lara, still short of his best form, took some of the pressure off Gayle with a breezy 48 which included 12 off an over from Daniel Vettori. Lara's cameo was ended when he edged Scott Styris to wicketkeeper Chris Hart (204 for 3).

Shortly afterwards Gayle finally reached his hundred with a classical back foot cover drive and then cut loose to the delight of the 8,000 capacity crowd. He smashed Ian Butler for four consecutive fours from the second over with the new ball and them carted pace bowler Shane Bond for a huge six over his head before being dropped at mid-off by Mark Richardson.

The new ball did for Hooper, trapped leg before by an unplayable delivery from Bond for 17 (242 for 4), but there was no stopping Gayle who continued to take on all the bowlers, bringing up his double-hundred with a barrage of boundaries. Gayle and Shivnarine Chanderpaul added 143 for the fifth wicket at almost a run-a-ball before Gayle was caught by Hart off Bond for 204 (385 for 5).

Chanderpaul brought up his own fifty just before the close and remained unbeaten at the end of the day. He will need to marshal the tail effectively, scoring quick runs, if West Indies are to have any chance of levelling the series. The batsman-friendly wicket still makes a draw the most likely outcome.

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