Image source, AP

...It's time for tea.

More frustration for the West Indies. DRS shows the ball only clipping the bails, so Ballance survives, and on that bombshell...

Shannon Gabriel pleads with the umpire to give an LBW when he hits Ballance on the pad. Umpire says no, Denesh Ramdin calls for a review...

Andrew Samson
BBC Test Match Special statistician

"Joe Root is the fifth England batsman to score six consecutive 50s in Test innings."

Image source, Getty Images

Joe Root reaches his sixth consecutive score of 50 plus in Tests with a single punched down the ground. What a dependable, integral player he has become for England. He has never scored an away century or won an away match in his Test career - will he be ticking either of those aims off his to-do list before the week is out?

Ed Smith
Ex-England batsman on BBC Test Match Special

"Root has been a class apart from all the batsman in this entire match."

Ballance's determination in this innings has been admirable but he hasn't quite found the timing that has come so easily to Joe Root. Root dabs the first ball of Gabriel's over to point, but Ballance can't get the rest of the over away.

Lewis James: Will be flabbergasted is Root isn't our next captain. Young, talented, and has all the right answers outside of the game.

Martin Smith: As a Spurs fan, Joe Root brings the same kind of excitement that Gareth Bale used to bring. If cricket had a transfer market?

Kemar Roach takes the cherry from the other end. On the England balcony, Alastair Cook spreads his arms in relaxed pose - England are coasting here. Roach continues to bowl too wide and it's far too easy for Gary Ballance to step in and cream through the off side for four.

Adrian Anderson: I cant see anything other than another draw in this Test. The cricket has been that negative from both sides. Neither are playing like they want to win. England will have to bat at all day tomorrow and part of Saturday to put on a decent total defend. Then West Indies will play for the draw.

Image source, Reuters

Finally, sanity prevails and Denesh Ramdin calls for the new nut. Shannon Gabriel is going to wang it down. New ball, old ball, it doesn't matter to Joe Root, who continues his serene progress towards a third half-century of the series with a punchy cut for four.

Will in Herts: I'm sorry but all this constant chat about KP is nonsense. I don't care that he may have been unfairly sacked I would not have him in our team at the minute. A middle order of Bell, Root, Moeen, Stokes and Butler is hugely exciting and I would not drop any of them for KP. Similarly, the top 3 of Cook, Trott/Lyth, Ballance is a solid start and something that we need.

Is Denesh Ramdin ready to go back to his big guns? Nope, he's going to try the water pistol. He calls on Jermaine Blackwood to bowl some part-time off-spin. His first ball is a half-tracker and Gary Ballance launches it over the fence at midwicket. Root then gets in on the act with a dab past point for four. That could be the end of that particular experiment...

OptaJim: 13.2 - Joe Root has left alone 13.2% of deliveries in his innings to date, lowest percentage of any top order batsman in the Test. Busy.

I may regret this rather audacious statement, but for all his accuracy, it feels like Marlon Samuels - Test strike rate cresting 100 - could bowl all day without taking a wicket. He trundles through another unthreatening over, at the cost of three singles.

Paul Collins: Run rate might not be high but in Ballance and especially Root, we have got two batsman in that could raise it higher later on.

Carl Carritt: Statistics are a funny thing. Root's Test average is 52, Trott's 45.

Chris Hartley: I'm confused, a 125 opening stand is a great platform, why are people complaining?

Root, who has faced 47 balls, is now just two runs behind Ballance, who has faced 95. He's batted far more smoothly than the other England players, a slick of cream on a rather heavy treacle sponge of an innings. Two leg byes bring up the 50 partnership, before Root overhauls Ballance with a powerful pull in front of square for four.

Geoffrey Boycott
Ex-England batsman on BBC Test Match Special

Image source, Getty Images

"Root is a lovely player. He does not look to get fours and sixes but yet he still does. If he gets in he is busy and he is a perfect player at number five."

Samuels continues. What's Denesh Ramdin's thinking here? Perhaps he reckons that the older ball will be harder to score off for England. But runs continue, if not to flow, then at least to trickle steadily - Root picks up three with a beautifully-placed flick into the leg side.

Tony Cozier
BBC Test Match Special

"Root has got to 27 very quickly, he's played very well. He looks like a player who will get thousands of runs for England and he is being spoken of as a future captain."