England's hopes of levelling the series in the final npower Test against South Africa were on today undermined by another lack-lustre display from their inexperienced attack on the first morning at The Oval.
Forced to bowl first after South African captain Graeme Smith won the toss and decided to bat on a wicket expected to produce plenty of runs, England failed to put the tourists under any sort of pressure during the opening session of the first day.
Captain Michael Vaughan used five bowlers before lunch in a desperate attempt to break South Africa's quick progress, and it took a mix-up over a quick single to claim their only wicket as the tourists reached a promising 111 for one.
Having overlooked Worcestershire's Kabir Ali and kept faith with Martin Bicknell because of his familiarity with The Oval after years of playing for Surrey, England would have hoped to have made more of an impact with the new ball.
But Bicknell and Lancashire seamer James Anderson both failed to trouble South African openers Smith and Herschelle Gibbs as the tourists progressed at four an over without much trouble.
Gibbs - who has scored only 49 runs in his last four innings during this series - seemed determined to finish the summer on a high and began demonstrating his strokeplay to the sell-out Oval crowd and raced to a superb half-century.
He hit two boundaries in the same over from Anderson to force Vaughan into removing the Lancashire seamer from the attack after only three overs with the new ball and turn to the pace of Steve Harmison.
That bowling change almost reaped immediate rewards with Gibbs almost running himself out after trying a quick single, only for Ed Smith to miss with his throw at the stumps from mid-on.
It was a warning for South Africa which they did not heed.
Only five overs later Gibbs tried another risky single, but this time ran out Smith after pushing to cover. Vaughan ran in to throw under-arm to wicketkeeper Alec Stewart - making his 133rd and final Test appearance - and beat the South African captain to the crease.
That dismissal brought Gary Kirsten, man-of-the-match during the previous Test victory at Headingley, to the crease, and he quickly asserted his dominance by clipping James Anderson for successive boundaries off his legs.
But it was Gibbs who dominated the opening session and he reached his half-century with his 10th boundary of the morning in the final over before lunch, while Kirsten was ominously unbeaten on 29.