England's cricketers say they still have a long way to go to win the second Ashes Test against Australia with the real hard work still in front of them.
England rebounded from their 277-run loss in last week's opening Test in Brisbane to finish the second day at Adelaide Oval in a strong position after declaring at 551-6 then reducing Australia to 28-1 at stumps.
Paul Collingwood made 206 to become just the third Englishman to score a Test double-century in Australia while Kevin Pietersen matched his highest Test score of 158.
The pair shared a record fourth wicket partnership of 310 but said they are wary about making any bold predictions for the match because the Adelaide Oval is so slow.
"We certainly haven't cracked it," Collingwood told a news conference.
"We've had two good days against them and you have to remember that this is a pretty flat, slow pitch and you're not going to be blasted out on this wicket.
"We've gone a long way and given ourselves a lot of confidence over the past two innings of doing well against them. We're heading in the right direction. We've had a couple of good days here but we want to press on."
Pietersen said England's success in getting the wicket of Justin Langer cheaply just before stumps had given the team the confidence to go on with the job on Sunday.
"It was really important. That's what we set ourselves out to do," he said.
"We set ourselves a target of going out there and coming hard at the Aussies and picking up a wicket.
"Our target was one wicket and it's just a case of hitting our disciplines tomorrow, setting really good fields, positive defensive fields possibly and boring the Australians."
GOOD DAY
Collingwood admitted he was a bundle of nerves after starting the day on 98 not out.
The 30-year-old was dismissed for 96 in Brisbane when he had a rush of blood but made no mistake this time, clipped express paceman Brett Lee through midwicket for three runs in the second over of the day.
"It's a nice feeling. It's been a good day for us," Collingwood said.
"I turned up this morning and needed two more for my century, there were a few nerves around.
"It wasn't just the century I was looking at I wanted to make a big one.
"It was the nervous nineties that got me out last week. I just wanted to get it out of the way and go on."
Pietersen also made amends for falling agonisingly short of a hundred in Brisbane when he was out for 92 as he brought up his sixth Test ton off 149 balls in 199 minutes.
He was eventually run out for 158, the same score he made against Australia in the last Ashes Test in 2005 and again against Sri Lanka at Lord's this year.
"You can probably see from that way I walked off the field, I was full of laughs and giggles thinking surely not," Pietersen said about his run of 158s.
"If you'd have given me 158 yesterday I would have taken it but it is disappointing getting so close but it's not a bad problem to have.
"To get ourselves to 550 shows a lot of grit and determination and they way we play our cricket.
"For Colly and I to be part of most of those runs is fantastic. The way he plays and the way I play complement each other really well.
"It's a flat wicket. Our bowlers are going to have to bowl really, really well and we're going to have to catch all our catches."
