At lunch, on the fourth day, England had been bowled out for 248 after off-spinner Chris Gayle, best known as opening batsman, had taken Test-best figures of five for 34.

Somerset left-handed opener Trescothick, 28, who made 105 in the first innings, was run out for 107 -- his eighth Test hundred.

England won the first Test at Lord's by 210 runs after setting West Indies 478 to win.

West Indies will now need to score 61 more than their world record fourth innings Test-winning score of 418 for seven against Australia at Antigua last year.

The highest winning fourth innings Test score at Edgbaston is England's 211 for three against New Zealand in 1999 and the highest fourth innings Test score of all on the ground was India's 277 in a match they lost by 132 runs in 1967.

England resumed on 148 for three, a lead of 378, after captain Michael Vaughan decided against enforcing the follow-on after left-arm spinner Ashley Giles's haul of four for 65 saw West Indies bowled out for 336.

At the start of the day, Trescothick was 88 not out and fellow left-hander Thorpe, on his 35th birthday, was 28 not out.

Both batsmen had been dropped on Friday with Trescothick put down twice, on 51 and 70.

The duo had come together when England were in danger of failing to ram home their advantage at 52 for three but soon had a century stand in 139 balls.

Trescothick looked in great touch right from the start of Saturday's play.

He reached his hundred with a cover-driven four off fast bowler Jermaine Lawson that left the field motionless.

Trescothick had faced 154 balls with one six and 14 fours.

He was only the ninth England batsman to achieve the feat but the second this series after Vaughan scored hundreds in both innings at Lord's.

But Trescothick was run out soon afterwards for when, following Thorpe's on-drive off Lawson, he failed to beat Ramnaresh Sarwan's direct hit from long-on to the bowler's end stumps as he came back for the second run.

Thorpe, dropped on eight by wicket-keeper Ridley Jacobs pressed on to a 76-ball fifty with his seventh pour, a resounding pull off Lawson.

But Jacobs stumped Thorpe for 76 off Gayle.

Meanwhile West Indies captain Brian Lara was off the field with an injured right hand after a ball bounced awkwardly in front of him in the slips.

Flintoff, whose Test-best 167 was centrepiece of England's first innings 566 for nine declared, lofted Lawson for six over long-on to the delight of a sun-drenched crowd.

But on 20 he spooned a catch to Dwayne Bravo at mid-wicket following a miscued pull off Gayle whose spell saw him capture five wickets for 13 runs in 46 balls.