Paul Collingwood backs Ollie Pope to lead England fightback at Lord’s

Paul Collingwood hailed Ollie Pope for his unbeaten half-century and insisted England have the capacity to fight back after a difficult opening day of the first Test against South Africa at Lord’s.

South Africa’s charge was halted by the rain which ultimately forced an early close of play with England up against it at 116 for six.

Pope offered the only resistance for England, bringing up his 50 just before lunch, having played confidently and in the spirit of the so-called ‘Bazball’ approach adopted under Brendon McCullum, finishing the day unbeaten on 61.

England assistant coach Collingwood believes Pope embodied the spirit of the team instilled by head coach McCullum and captain Ben Stokes.

“I thought he was fantastic today,” Collingwood said.

“Our mantra of trying to put the opposition under pressure, he did that brilliantly today.

“I thought he was composed, he looked busy at the crease and on a wicket that was giving them quite a lot of assistance he got us into a position at the end of the day’s play where we’re not necessarily out of the game, but he’s batted exceptionally well and shown a lot of skill.

“Hopefully he can get back in tomorrow and get us into a position where we can see where we are in the game, and I guess we won’t know that until we’ve bowled on that same surface.”

Kagiso Rabada landed two early blows to remove opening pair Alex Lees and Zak Crawley, before Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow fell for eight and nought respectively to leave the hosts 55 for four.

Pope and Stokes looked set to lead a recovery, but the captain and wicketkeeper Ben Foakes fell either side of lunch to put South Africa in the box seat.

The rain forced the players off shortly after Foakes’ wicket at 2.09pm and did not ease up