Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood Lead England Fightback Against Australia

Tea

Kevin Pietersen is limping, and it might become one of the most familiar sights of the Ashes summer. His achilles problem is already playing up but in league with Paul Collingwood he has revived England's fortunes on the opening afternoon of the first Ashes Test.

Unlike a certain insurance company, Pietersen has no compunction about making a drama out of a crisis. The thought that his achilles might betray him at any moment is one of England's greatest fears, a potential stroke of ill luck that could bring down the entire team, not just their most prominent batsman.

Pietersen's fourth-wicket stand with Paul Collingwood was worth 104 in 34 overs by tea, both men achieving half-centuries just before the interval during a considered rebuilding of England's position after the loss of three wickets before lunch.

Pietersen and Collingwood have now scored more runs against Australia than any fourth-wicket pair, surpassing Ken Barrington and Colin Cowdrey. They are already the most productive fourth-wicket partnership in England's Test history.

Collingwood, perfectly at home on a slow, low surface, might have been operating undercover as he moved silently to a half-century from 125 balls. Pietersen, not the sort to loiter unnoticed, had reached his fifty 30 balls faster, his gloves shining brightly in highlighter-pen yellow, the inners of his pads a matching shade of lime green. It is if his achilles turns green that we all have to worry.

Perhaps Pietersen's limp will become as fearsome as that of the former West Indian opening batsman Gordon Greenidge. When he began to hobble, bowlers knew that it was time to take cover as the pain irked him into a series of murderous straight drives.

England scored a healthy 97 runs between lunch and tea, managing only six boundaries but efficiently milking Australia's attack, none more so than their commonplace off-spinner, Nathan Hauritz, whose 14 overs cost 41, and whose appearance in the attack would have been quietly welcomed.

Hauritz's field could hardly have been more negative. He began with a long-on and had three fielders stationed for various top-edged sweeps. It was the sweep that Pietersen missed that almost ended his innings on 40, the ball creeping through his legs and shaving leg stump.

Lunch

Australia have drawn first blood in the Ashes. They had cut deep into England's first innings by lunch on the first day, removing Alastair Cook, Andrew Strauss and Ravi Bopara. The first taste of Test cricket in Wales has proved an unnerving experience for England.

This being Wales, the prelude to the match involved a lot of singing, but once the Test started it all gave way to Australian dancing. On a pitch that promised a day of attritional cricket, the Australian pace attack who performed so impressively to win in South Africa had an excellent start.

Cook fell in insipid fashion, steering Ben Hilfenhaus to gully, where Mike Hussey sprung to his right to take an excellent catch. Strauss and Bopara were both duped by excellent variation from Mitchell Johnson, whose opening spells were mixed but who ended the session with two for 37 from nine overs.

In the absence of Brett Lee because of injury, Australia's captain Ricky Ponting kept faith with the pace attack that had performed so impressively in South Africa, preferring the workmanlike qualities of Hilfenhaus to Stuart Clark and opted on a pitch expected to turn substantially as the match progresses to pick the off-spinner Nathan Hauritz, who took only two wickets in the warm-up games.

Strauss moved sedately to 30, but he was undone by Johnson's change of pace. He followed up a slower ball with a 93mph bouncer – probably the quickest ball of the morning. It did not get up – not many did on a surface with definite sub-continent tendencies – and Strauss was struck on the glove as he tried to take evasive action, the ball looping to Michael Clarke in the slips.

The morning was dominated by an agonised innings by Bopara: uncertain, yet combative, surviving more by desire than sagacity. He was hit twice, first deliberately riding a delivery from Peter Siddle on the chest, later ducking into a bouncer that failed to get up from Johnson.

His first Ashes Test began edgily. He got off the mark with a Chinese cut for four and needed 21 balls before his first authentic shot, pushing Johnson into the legside. Siddle deliberately fed him two wide ones, both dispatched airily through point for four. A checked drive against Johnson also sailed fortunately over mid-off.

If Bopara was living dangerously, the element of risk increased the moment that Pietersen came to the crease and typically kick-started his innings with a series of madcap singles more attuned to World Twenty20 than the start of a five-Test Ashes series.

Pietersen survived until lunch somewhat precariously, Bopara did not, dismissed for 35 in 52 balls as he was deceived by a slower ball from Johnson which he shunted into the offside as he tried to check his shot. Quite what a good first-innings score is on this pitch nobody really knows. England will hope after an uneasy morning it is around 280. It might be that 380 is nearer the mark.