Paul Collingwood backs Ollie Pope to lead England's fightback on Day 2

England assistant coach Paul Collingwood has backed Ollie Pope to lead England's fightback in the first Test after the visiting South African seamers ripped apart their top order at Lord's on Wednesday.

Ollie Pope after hitting a craft half-century on Lord's

After winning the toss, South Africa elected to bowl under cloudy skies in the series opener. The Proteas pace quartet of Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Lungi Ngidi, and Marco Jansen made full use of the overhead conditions. 

The trio of Rabada, Nortje, and Jansen combinedly picked six wickets before the rain took out the final fours hours of play.

England lost their openers in quick succession to Rabada's opening spell which set the tone for the visitors. Apart from Ollie Pope, no other English batter could have a prolonged stay at the crease.

Even with wickets falling, Pope stood firm on one end and got to his eighth half-century in Test cricket. England's No. three remained committed to his team’s all-out attacking strategy and had the intend to pounce on anything loose.

Pope was fantastic on Day 1: Collingwood

Praising Pope after day one's play, Collingwood said that the 24-year-old batter batted brilliantly and maintained his composure against the Proteas quicks.

“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," said Paul Collingwood.

“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.”

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