Collingwood shared in two century partnerships to steer England from a parlous 45 for two to be 266 for three at stumps against Australia on the opening day at Adelaide Oval.

The Durham right-hander followed on from his 96 in Brisbane to be unbeaten on 98 with Kevin Pietersen on 60, after captain Andrew Flintoff won the toss.

The pair rattled an unbroken 108 runs for the fourth wicket in just 115 minutes after Collingwood combined with Ian Bell to put on 113 runs for the third wicket.

The under-rated Collingwood, who sacrificed a century in Brisbane when he charged Warne four runs short of his century and was stumped, had occupied the crease for 277 minutes by the close.

Bell hailed his teammate Collingwood as a gutsy cricketer who always gives his all for England.

"Mentally he's a gutsy cricketer," said Bell, who scored a patient 60 in three hours.

"The difference between Colly and other players that have played in the past is that he's such a gutsy cricketer and gives it everything.

"He's not frightened of tough situations and I think he's shown that on this tour already that when it's tough he'll get in there and fight for England."

Collingwood will have his third Test century on his mind overnight before he resumes on Saturday's second day in a quest for his first hundred against Australia.

He scored 134 not out against India in the first Test at Nagpur last March and 186 against Pakistan at Lord's in July.

"He's deserved it. He's played really well and coming in from the Gabba and playing as well as he played he's done exactly the same on Friday and hopefully he can go on tomorrow and get his century because he's played fantastically well," Bell said.

"We'd have liked him to have got it tonight. We were dead keen to see him get a hundred after getting 96 at the Gabba."

Bell said a team meeting a few days before the Adelaide Test laid the foundations for a much-improved performance after their heavy 277-run defeat in Brisbane last Monday.

"It's important for us to get as many runs as we can and grind away and keep Australia out there as long as possible," he said.

"We did have a meeting. It was the players who spoke, there was no management, it all came from the team and it was a bit of honesty to say we weren't good enough at Brisbane.

"Whatever we did whether it was bowling or batting we had to do it well from ball one and we've pretty much done that with the bat on Friday."