Ashes: Kevin Pietersen double ton puts England on top

Second Ashes Test, Adelaide:
Australia 245 all out v England 551-4 (day three, stumps)
Venue: Adelaide Oval Date: 3-7 December. Play resumes 2330 GMT on 5 Dec Coverage: Listen live on Test Match Special on BBC Radio 4 LW, 5 live sports extra and online; live highlights and day's review on the TMS podcast ; text commentary on BBC Sport website and mobiles and live on Sky Sports 1 Match scorecard

Pietersen was back to his dazzling best after a modest recent run

By Jamie Lillywhite

Kevin Pietersen struck an imperious unbeaten 213 as England built a massive 306-run lead on day three of the second Test against Australia in Adelaide.

Pietersen struck a six and 29 fours before rain prevented any play in the post-tea session.
Alastair Cook went for 148 during the morning, but Paul Collingwood (42) and Ian Bell (41 not out) kept Pietersen company in stands of 101 and 99.
It was the first time England had passed 500 in successive Ashes innings.
Pietersen's double century was only the seventh by an England batsman in Australia and a magnificent return to form by the 30-year-old former captain, who was left out of the one-day team at the end of the English domestic season.
He was back to his dominant best as he completed his first Test hundred since March 2009 in the sixth over of the day, having resumed on 85 not out.
Only barrel-chested Ryan Harris posed a serious threat to Pietersen, surprising him with a well-directed rising delivery which flew past his nose and then tempting him into a hook shot which resulted in a top edge that fortunately landed in space on the leg-side.
Harris captured the one wicket to fall before lunch when Cook, having batted for 1,058 minutes since his dismissal in the first innings of the opening Test in Brisbane, got an inside edge to one that nipped back and wicketkeeper Brad Haddin took an excellent catch low to his right having initially been wrong-footed.

It was Pietersen's third century in the Ashes in his 14th match

Despite his departure, the runs continued to flow, prompting Australia captain Ricky Ponting to try a 7-2 off-side field, but Pietersen merely stepped across and whipped Doug Bollinger from off-stump to the mid-wicket boundary.
And when Ponting put men out on the leg-side boundary during a spell by Peter Siddle, Pietersen accepted the challenge by disdainfully putting away two premeditated pull shots for four in the swaggering style of a baseball champion.
Siddle, his first Test hat-trick now a distant memory, did produce one delivery which swerved like a boomerang as it passed the stumps and went for four byes, but generally there was little assistance for the labouring Australian seamers.
Ponting then turned to his left-arm spinner Xavier Doherty, but he could only find turn when pitching closer the edge of the cut strip than the stumps and was hit for two fours in his opening over.
He was unable to provide the control his captain was looking for and was launched down the ground for six by Pietersen, a shot measured at 103 metres.
The expanding patches of rough created by left-arm seamer Bollinger were more suited to off-spinner Marcus North, who turned some deliveries dramatically, a fact that will not have escaped the notice of England spinner Graeme Swann.
But Pietersen swept two fours off North in the final over before lunch, piercing two fielders barely 20 yards apart on the fence as England took their lead to 204 at the interval.
Australia made a breakthrough in the third over of the afternoon session when Collingwood was pinned on the crease and adjudged plumb lbw to Shane Watson for a well constructed 42.
Bell settled quickly, however, and the only discomfort for Pietersen was an apparent hamstring niggle sustained as he pushed for the single to take him to 200.
Bell continued the momentum with some delightful drives, cuts and pulls and could well have become England's fifth centurion of the tour had the clouds not closed in and rain ended proceedings prematurely for the day.
England's total when the umpires called a halt was, ironically, the same score on which they declared in the corresponding Test four years ago when they lost by six wickets.
An indifferent forecast for the remainder of the match may lead to a revision of tactics but they can be far more confident of victory this time.