Cricket: England endured their worst day of the series to allow Pakistan to take a firm hold on the fourth Test at The Oval.
Andrew Strauss' men were knocked over for just 173 and then claimed a solitary wicket, scuppered by three dropped catches off Matthew Hoggard, as the hosts reduced the deficit to 77 runs.
Fast bowler Mohammad Asif made a stunning return to international cricket, following an elbow injury, to claim four wickets and Umar Gul also picked up a quartet of victims.
It was the tall 23-year-old Asif who began the demise from 54 for one with the removal of Andrew Strauss, Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood in a wicket-heavy middle session.
Gul then mopped up the tail in the evening to leave the Pakistanis with a full session to bat despite the wet weather forecast.
Yet England failed to create menace and Pakistan's biggest inconvenience in the first hour of the innings came when Mohammad Hafeez was forced to retire hurt with a knee injury.
Younis Khan, his replacement at the crease, began with ease before an attempted leg glance off Sajid Mahmood resulted in his demise.
England might have been in a stronger position at the close but for drops by Collingwood and Marcus Trescothick off consecutive Hoggard deliveries and another by Alastair Cook off the same bowler.
Opener Imran Farhat flashed a drive to short extra-cover, where Collingwood's palms failed to clasp the ball and the batsman registered his first half-century of the series.
Then when Hoggard found the edge of Mohammad Yousuf's bat, Trescothick grassed the chance at first slip.
England then inexplicably gave Yousuf another life when Cook put one down in the gully. Earlier, Trescothick's poor return with the bat continued in the series finale.
Trescothick, who went into the fourth Test having contributed just one half-century against the Pakistanis, managed just half-a-dozen runs before guiding a catch to gully off Gul, shortly after lunch.
England negotiated a stop-start first session without mishap after being asked to bat.
Despite the miserable weather forecast, play got under way on time and eight overs were possible in a shortened morning, the hosts taking lunch on 27 without loss.
Captain Strauss dominated the scoring, moving to 22 not out thanks to a leg-glance for four, two driven boundaries through the off-side and a pull through midwicket.
Fellow opener Trescothick struggled somewhat, getting beaten regularly outside the off-stump and surviving a vociferous leg-before appeal early in the innings.
Just two balls were bowled by the returning Asif to Trescothick before the first of the forecast showers halted play for half-an-hour.
The drizzle stopped minutes after the players departed the middle and umpires Darrell Hair and Billy Doctrove surveyed the ground before deciding the action should resume at 11.35am.
When it did Asif struck Trescothick on the front pad with the second delivery after the resumption - but Hair turned down the appeal after judging the ball would pass over the top of the stumps.
Trescothick took 14 balls to get off the mark and dealt in singles throughout his knock.
While Strauss negated the bowler-friendly conditions with some positive strokes, Trescothick's struggle was tangible.
He was finally put out of his misery shortly after lunch - which was taken early due to the wet weather - when the ball flew off a thick edge to Hafeez.
Even though the heavy cloud cover encouraged the Pakistan pacemen, there were few warning signs of the damage that Asif was to inflict when wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal held a fine catch to his left to dismiss Strauss.
Pietersen followed next ball when he edged an extravagant drive and, although Cook survived the hat-trick opportunity, England were soon four down.
Collingwood fortuitously reached 1,000 Test runs with an edge to the third-man rope but did not add to his score as Asif trapped him lbw.
Left-hander Cook fought back with some handsome boundaries but he was prised out walking across his stumps after the in-form Ian Bell jabbed to silly-point.
Wicketkeeper Chris Read played with surprising freedom given the precarious position of his side but chopped into his stumps as the Pakistan bowlers ability to reverse swing the ball accounted for the lower order.