A century to Ian Bell has powered England to 303-6 at stumps on the second day of the tour match against South Australia at the Adelaide Oval.
Bell struck form at exactly the right time, with less than a week before the first Ashes Test. He finished on 132 after an excellent 178-run stand with Paul Collingwood that rescued the tourists from 3-34 and played a large part in the first innings lead of 56.
Bell and Kevin Pietersen then added 70 off just 69 balls late in the day before they were removed soon after the introduction of the second new ball.
Bell edged a back-foot drive off Shaun Tait to Darren Lehmann in the gully and Pietersen (32 off 35 balls) shouldered arms to Jason Gillespie and was bowled.
Tait finished with 3-65 but suffered cramp late in the day and was forced to leave the field. Geraint Jones was not out on 14 at stumps, while Andrew Flintoff was six.
The day had begun badly for the tourists. After resuming at 24-1, things quickly went awry with nightwatchman Matthew Hoggard and opener Alastair Cook falling early in the day as England slumped to 34-3.
Hoggard was still on his overnight score of 10 when he edged to wicketkeeper Shane Deitz off Tait and three overs later, Cook also nicked through to Deitz when on 12, this time off Gillespie.
But Bell and Collingwood got them through to the next two intervals, with the tourists 82-3 at lunch and 196-3 at tea before Collingwood, on 80, departed in the fourth over after tea when he snicked a front-foot cut off Cullen Bailey to Deitz.
Andrew Strauss (0) had fallen off just the second ball of the innings late on the opening day, trapped by Tait. South Australia's innings was highlighted by an excellent 73 from Cameron Borgas, and an unlucky 99 from skipper Darren Lehmann, who was run out going for his century.
