Kevin Pietersen's half-century spares England blushes at the Waca

England's first innings of their Ashes tour was entirely undistinguished as they collapsed at the Waca against a Western Australia attack of limited pedigree. Well, not entirely undistinguished. At least there was the hint of a strut from Kevin Pietersen and when the Ashes series begins for real that could be worth a lot. Pietersen's barren summer in England – twice past fifty in 15 innings in all competitions – led him to make a brief return to South Africa ahead of the tour of Australia, where he lavished praise upon his mum's home cooking and the coaching of Graham Ford. The end result was a crisp half-century which, if not entirely error free, had definite reminders of the Pietersen of old. Ford, suggests Pietersen, did not concentrate unduly on technical issues, but just repaired his ego. "I've never been a technical player," he said. "You've seen my play for six years. I play like a clown. It's my mental approach I needed to change. I needed to get my confidence back. Graham has known me since I was a nipper. He knows how to sort me out. I'm on fire at the moment." He claims to have no knowledge that Australia have been losing, and that he has not turned on the television since he got here. "My computer is turned on to Skype and I talk to my wife and baby all the time," he said. Such comments are pointed because he is reportedly dismayed by Andy Flower's ruling – entirely justifiable in professional terms – that families cannot join the tour until after the second Test. If he really is a clown, perhaps we are dangerously close to Smokey Robinson's Tears Of A Clown territory? England could only hope that the smile on his face was not just there to fool the public. Pietersen averaged 50-plus four years ago for an England side whitewashed 5-0. He must have felt in familiar territory when his 58 from 90 balls, followed by a face-saving unbroken ninth-wicket stand of 64 in six overs between the Nottinghamshire pair of Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann, prevented an England calamity. England collapsed to 117 for seven despite Western Australia's loss of their most experienced pace bowler, Steve Magoffin, with knee trouble. Magoffin, who has had spells at Surrey and Leicestershire without particularly drawing attention to himself, dismissed the England openers. Those then charged with completing the job in his absence – Ryan Duffield and Michael Hogan – entered the match with three first-class games between them and the left-arm spinner Matt Beer, at 29, is in his second season of first-class cricket. Pietersen's troubles against left-arm spinners in the past year have been well chronicled, but this Australian Beer was more to his palate. His footwork was decisive and a straight six brought roars of approval from the England balcony. His forays down the wicket, however, did not always possess certainty and he was also dropped at second slip off Hogan on 25. Jonathan Trott spent useful time at the crease and Ian Bell, who struck his third ball, from Beer, for a straight six, looked entirely unflustered until infuriatingly he cut him to slip. Western Australia stretched their lead to 128, with nine wickets intact, by the close of the second day. England's only wicket was a fortunate lbw decision for Steve Finn. His initial uncertainty on his first tour of Australia has already encouraging conjecture that England might yet turn in Brisbane to Chris Tremlett, who has more experience, or Ajmal Shahzad, who can reverse-swing the old ball.