The English team are now more confident of victory than ever - particularly after Pieterson's extraordinary unbeaten 213 runs from 296 balls. This now puts England 306 runs ahead of their Australian opponents with just two days of the second Test left to go.
England resumed play on day three of the second test match. Alastair Cook went for 148 in the morning, but with Paul Collingwood hitting 42 and Ian Bell scoring 41 not out it helped Pietersen to be the only fifth English player to hit double centuries in Australia and the second in two days.
Kevin Pietersen, who scored 213 not out, hasn’t registered a century for England since March 2009 in Trinidad, but has now reaffirmed his status in the England batting ranks.
Australia appeared to have run out of ideas. England totalled 551 for 4 wickets when the umpires called a halt to play when rain started to fall in the middle session. The covers went on and the players went off to tea. The conditions didn’t improve enough for the players to take the field again.
Speaking on Sky Sports, he said: "You go through tough times in your career, it's how you get through that.
"I knew doing the basics and keeping things simple I would come good. To get some time in the middle in this fixture has been great."
Pietersen also paid tribute to coach Graham Ford after going back to basics, gh said: "It came back then. He just went through bits and pieces I had forgotten."
Pietersen now wants to help the team press on for victory. He added: "It's about the team's position. The Ashes is still nil-nil and we now need to go about winning a Test match.
