Kevin Pietersen won his battle with Shane Warne as England escaped from Australia’s clutches into a sound position on the opening day of the second Ashes Test at the Adelaide Oval on Friday.
Paul Collingwood was poised for a century and Pietersen hoisted a lusty six over long-on off Warne in a hustling century stand for the tourists, fighting back after their punishing 277-run defeat in the first Test at the Gabba.
England were 266-3 at stumps. Collingwood followed on from his 96 in Brisbane to be unbeaten on 98 and Pietersen was on 60 after captain Andrew Flintoff won the toss.
The pair rattled an unbroken 108 runs for the fourth wicket in just 115 minutes.
Amid cautious field placements and curious bowling preferences by skipper Ricky Ponting, England wriggled out of Australia’s grip in the final session with Stuart Clark under-bowled despite taking two wickets in the morning.
Pietersen’s one-on-one contests with Hampshire county teammate Warne have been one of the much-anticipated highlights of the series and he didn’t disappoint after their contretemps in Brisbane last week.
It was Pietersen’s arrival at the wicket after the loss of Ian Bell for 60 that quickened England’s scoring rate after it had dawdled along at 2,4 runs an over amid tight Australian bowling.
Pietersen wasted little time raising his half-century off 69 balls while Collingwood played the anchor role to help restore the England innings after the loss of both openers before lunch.
During Pietersen’s counter-attacking second innings of 92 in the first Test, Warne hurled the ball at his head, forcing the England number five to knock it away with his bat and yell at Warne.
Collingwood, who sacrificed a century in Brisbane when he charged Warne on 96 and was stumped, had occupied the crease for 277 minutes by the close in another influential innings for his country.
Warne finished the day with 0-85 off 27 overs.
Collingwood and Bell played strait-jacket cricket to put on 113 runs for the third wicket before Bell went to hook a short ball only to sky a catch to bowler Brett Lee 13 minutes after tea.
Bell, who hit 50 in the first innings in Brisbane and wrestled with Warne’s tricks early, batted for just over three hours with six boundaries.
Medium-pacer Clark followed up his seven wickets in Brisbane with the scalps of Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook inside his first six overs in the morning session.
Strauss continued his poor series after Gabba scores of 12 and 11 when he miscued a leading edge to a diving Damien Martyn at mid-on. Cook was then caught behind by Adam Gilchrist.
But Clark only bowled two overs after tea and finished with 2-25 off 15 overs.
Australian pace spearhead Glenn McGrath was passed fit to play after concern over a heel injury, while left-arm spinner Monty Panesar was left out of an unchanged England eleven.
McGrath had to convince his skipper Ponting that he would be able to complete a five-day match after needing painkillers to see out Australia’s win at the Gabba. He bowled 18 overs for 0-51.
England decided against playing attacking finger-spinner Panesar, despite coach Duncan Fletcher’s comments this week that he was strongly considering using both spinners on an Adelaide pitch expected to take turn.
The Adelaide Oval is traditionally a high-scoring ground with the Australians amassing 500-plus in three of their last four Tests here with four batsmen scoring double-centuries — West Indies’ Brian Lara (226) last year, Justin Langer (215) against New Zealand in 2004 and Ponting (242) and Indian Rahul Dravid (233) in the 2003 Test loss to India.