The umpires inspect the ball as Inzamam looks on.

Betfair clarify their position on the match

Bookmakers are paying out on an England victory following the unprecedented end to the fourth Test with Pakistan at the Oval.

The game finished in dramatic circumstances on Sunday with International Cricket Council officials ruling the match should be forfeited in the hosts' favour.

Never before in the history of Test cricket has a match been forfeited in this manner.

After hours of deliberations, it was agreed the match could no longer continue following the controversial scenes earlier in the day when Pakistan had been aggrieved by the award of five penalty runs to England after umpires Darrell Hair and Billy Doctrove believed there had been ball tampering.

The inflamed situation began in the afternoon session when the umpires decided the state of the match ball had been altered by someone on the fielding side as Pakistan pushed for victory.

Under the laws of the game the umpires awarded five penalty runs to England despite protests from the tourists but after playing on until just before tea, when bad light halted play with England on 298 for four and still 33 runs adrift, Pakistan failed to emerge from their dressing room at the appointed 4.40pm restart.

At that point an England win had been trading at around 25/1, with Pakistan 4/6 and the draw 11/10.

The umpires waited five minutes in the middle before walking off to the bemusement of the sell-out crowd and England batsmen Paul Collingwood and Ian Bell, who were both waiting to restart on the England balcony.

After a further 10 minutes both the umpires and the England batsmen again returned to the middle but the only response from the Pakistan dressing room was wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal to emerge and sit on the balcony reading a newspaper.

The in-running price on an England win had by now collapsed on leading exchange Betfair, with the home side traded all the way into odds-on.

Talks were then held over the course of the next few hours to see if play could resume before the official match result was confirmed at around 10.20pm on Sunday as a win for England.

Sunderlands were among the first firms to confirm that they were therefore paying out on an England win - and, in a bonus for punters, they'll also void bets on Pakistan and the draw.

Michael Reid, their online Media Relations representative, confirmed: "In view of the extraordinary events at the Oval we will pay out on the official result of an England win and we shall also void all fourth Test bets on the draw and Pakistan.

"Also we shall be paying out on the correct score of England 3-0 in the series and we shall be refunding all stakes on England 2-0 and England 2-1.

"We calculate that this decision has cost a five figure sum."

Paddy Power mirrored the first part of that equation by paying out on England and refunding bets on Pakistan and the draw in the fourth Test.

Paddy Power, head of communications for the bookie, said: "We think this is the fair result and one that doesn't leave our punters stumped. In these situations Paddy Power doesn't look at our rules but we ask ourselves what we would consider to be a fair result if we were the punter."

Ladbrokes, William Hill and totesport are all simply paying out on an England win.

Ladbrokes spokesman Robin Hutchison said: "It's a fairly unsatisfactory set of circumstances for all concerned and we would have preferred it if the game could have come to its natural conclusion.

"But we don't feel there is anything we can do other than pay out on the official result. To do otherwise would set a poor precedent.

"Clearly the result is a better one for the bookies than the punters as we layed a lot of the draw antepost and a lot of Pakistan during the game but I can assure punters we would have gone with the official result whatever the position in our field book.

"Given that it was a dead rubber - and weather-threatened - interest was pretty low so if we've made five figures out of the match we'll have done very well."

Rupert Adams of William Hill added: "Our rules state we pay out on the official result. It's sad for some punters but that's all we can do.

"Anyone who backed England will be celebrating, but sadly there weren't many people who did."

Paul Petrie explaining, totesport's spokesman, echoed that view as he explained: "Our rules are clear in that we pay out on the official result so therefore it is an England win.

"Obviously those that backed Pakistan and the draw can consider themselves extremely unlucky and we can only hope that this situation never arises again.

"We have a betting booth at the Oval and plenty of patriotic punters were backing England at 25/1 so they will be pleased to know that they can now go and collect their winnings."