Mohammad Yousuf added to his already-impressive collection of English centuries to leave Pakistan in an impregnable position after a curtailed second day of the fourth and final Test on Friday.
Yousuf, having made 202 in the first Test and 192 in the third, added 115 not out this time as the touring side, resuming on 96 for one, pushed on to 336 for three for a first-innings lead of 163 against increasingly ramshackle opponents.
It was also the 30-year-old's fourth century in five Tests against England.
Imran Farhat and Mohammad Hafeez joined the harvest, with 91 and 95 runs respectively on a miserably one-sided day. Inzamam-ul-Haq was the other not out batsman, on two.
Nothing was more miserable than England's catching and bowling on Friday.
They had made sure of winning the four-test series by going 2-0 up at Headingley but have looked close to incompetent at The Oval.
Yousuf, dropped on five and nine, gleefully accepted his hosts' favours while Farhat and Hafeez also benefited from free lives.
BEAUTIFUL BOWLING
The first day had been graced by some beautiful seam bowling from Mohammad Asif. England's answer was ugly in the extreme on a day restricted to 60 overs by a wet outfield, a heavy afternoon downpour and bad light.
Strike bowler Steve Harmison, in particular, was at his most infuriating, his stock ball wide, short and invariably punished. His 15 wicket-less overs went for 78, at more than five an over. Even left-arm spinner Monty Panesar, a key component to England's Old Trafford and Headingley wins, could not turn off the tap.
Yousuf got to three figures in a blitz of boundaries off Paul Collingwood's medium pace, three rifled through the covers in four balls.
The fact that Andrew Strauss had had to turn to Collingwood at all showed how badly he had been let down by his four front-liners. Hoggard fared best, with two for 79. He also had three catches put down.
For the most part, though, Yousuf concentrated on risk-free accumulation, leaving the spectacular to his team mates.
The left-handed Farhat had burst into life in the morning when smashing Sajid Mahmood through the covers for four lavish fours in two overs and then slogging Panesar's first ball over mid-on for six.
His next boundary, however, taking him into the nineties, was less convincing. A flail at a short ball from Hoggard just cleared Strauss's fingertips at second slip and two balls later he was gone, a similar stroke ending up into Marcus Trescothick's hands.
CROWD-PLEASING SHOTS
Hafeez also threw away the chance of a second century in his fourth test when chipping Hoggard lazily straight into the hands of Strauss at short mid-wicket. He and Yousuf had put on 177 together.
Hafeez, like Farhat, played a string of crowd-pleasing shots, lofting Panesar effortlessly for six over mid-off before rain forced an early tea and smashing three fours in four balls off Mahmood in the final session. One of those was dismally fumbled over the cover rope by Alastair Cook to sum up England's distracted performance.
Yousuf, however, was more bent on pleasing statisticians. A beautifully balanced batsman did not put a foot wrong after his early reprieves on Thursday.
He had become only the second man, behind India's Rahul Dravid, to get past 1,000 Test runs for 2006 on the first day. On the second, he continued gorging on England's bowling on his way to his 19th Test hundred.
He has averaged 120.1 in his last seven completed innings against England. Friday's score also took his average for the series past 100.
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