Stuart Broad was not surprised to bowl at near to his fastest as his vital wickets limited West Indies to under 300 on a Grenada pitch taylor-made for batting.
A technical change allowed Broad to exceed 90mph, and he enjoyed a three-wicket burst with the second new ball to help dismiss the Windies for 299 and return figures of 4-61.
A 94-run stand between centurion Marlon Samuels and skipper Denesh Ramdin had held up England between rain delays.
But when James Anderson ousted Samuels, Broad followed up by having Ramdin and Jason Holder caught behind in consecutive overs before soon seeing Kemar Roach held in the slip cordon.
Although last-wicket alliance of 52 between Devendra Bishoo and Shannon Gabriel frustrated the tourists, Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott responded perfectly by putting on 74 without loss by stumps.
Broad, speaking exclusively to ecb.co.uk about his technical change, explained:“I was getting a bit too tight in to the stumps, which technically for me means I can’t get my hips through and drive through, and a lot of my weight falls off to the side.
“So a slight technical change allowed me to stay a bit wider on the crease and my whole body and momentum goes through.
“So I wasn’t surprised my paces were up today and I was delighted to make some impact with that new ball because we needed quick wickets at that time.
“We could have knocked over the number 10 and 11 a bit quicker. Maybe we could have been a bit more aggressive with our bowling in that little period of the game.
“But also we’ve got to remember it’s a pretty flat wicket. It’s not really seamed around. It’s swung when the conditions have suited so we’ll be hoping for a bright blue sky tomorrow morning and let’s bat on.”
Cook and Trott’s steady partnership leaves England in a strong position to put West Indies under pressure later in the game, like they did last week in Antigua.
Although that Test was drawn, Broad believes the tourists can go 1-0 up ahead of the third and final match.
“Not losing a wicket today with the new ball was massive, moving forward in the game,” he reflected.
“The new ball seems the hardest time to bat so if you get through that you can really cash in. So it’s great to have two opening batsmen still out there when the new ball is 20 overs old.
“Our job is to try and bat for a day and a half, two days, because if we do that we put ourselves in a position to win the Test.”