KP stars for England
Centurion Kevin Pietersen and Alastair Cook stole the show as England surged to a nine-wicket win to clinch their one-day international series against Pakistan.
A stand of 170 - England's best against Pakistan - between their new openers upped the ante after previous partnerships of 57 and 67.
As Pietersen (111no) registered his eighth ODI hundred, and first for more than three years, England duly cruised over the line with 12.4 overs to spare after bowling Pakistan out for 222 at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
The resulting 3-0 margin means they have won the series a match early, their first success away to Pakistan in this format for 25 years.
England's ODI superiority has been in stark contrast to their hugely disappointing 3-0 Test series whitewash on this tour. The ease of the latest victory made a mockery too of those Test travails, twice over, on this same ground against most of the same bowlers.
Pietersen became the seventh England batsman to pass 4,000 ODI runs when he hit Mohammad Hafeez for a straight six, repeating the dose he had earlier handed out to Shahid Afridi.
By then, after being dropped on 45 by Azhar Ali at deep square-leg off Aizaz Cheema, he was well set for a breakthrough innings in his new guise at the top of the order.
Cook (80) was on course, until he feathered a catch behind pushing forward to Saeed Ajmal, for his third successive hundred.
But it was Pietersen who completed the century - dominating from the outset with a display of clean front-foot striking for 10 fours and those two sixes from 98 balls.
Yet England had done the hard work much earlier, thanks to Stuart Broad (three for 42) and the increasingly impressive Steven Finn (three for 24) - and despite Afridi and Umar Akmal's 50s on a pitch of fair pace.
