Paul Collingwood hailed Ollie Pope for his unbeaten half-century and insisted England have the capability to struggle again after a troublesome opening day of the primary Test in opposition to South Africa at Lord’s.
South Africa’s cost was halted by the rain which finally pressured an early shut of play with England up in opposition to it at 116 for six.
Pope supplied the one resistance for England, citing his 50 simply earlier than lunch, having performed confidently and within the spirit of the so-called ‘Bazball’ strategy adopted underneath Brendon McCullum, ending the day unbeaten on 61.
England assistant coach Collingwood believes Pope embodied the spirit of the staff instilled by head coach McCullum and captain Ben Stokes.
“I thought he was fantastic today,” Collingwood stated.
“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 take away opening pair Alex Lees and Zak Crawley, earlier than Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow fell for eight and nought respectively to depart the hosts 55 for 4.
Pope and Stokes appeared set to guide a restoration, however the captain and wicketkeeper Ben Foakes fell both facet of lunch to place South Africa within the field seat.
The rain pressured the gamers off shortly after Foakes’ wicket at 2.09pm and didn’t ease up all afternoon earlier than the tip of play was lastly known as at 4:31pm.
Collingwood backed England to stay to their methodology, after their most troublesome day with the bat underneath the brand new McCullum-Stokes regime.
“Everyone’s clear about how we’re going to go about our batting. That’s not going to change,” he stated.
“We’re not always going to get it 100 per cent right. I thought at times today we soaked up pressure and at times we put it back on the bowlers.”
Ahead of the sport, Stokes had singled out opening pair Lees and Crawley for reward following their century stand in the course of the victory over India at Edgbaston final month, but there can be no such feat in opposition to the Proteas.
Crawley specifically has struggled in latest months and has not scored a half-century in any respect within the English summer season, however Collingwood insisted they don’t seem to be searching for him to be constant.
“The messaging is very clear with Zak. We don’t necessarily look for consistency with Zak,” Collingwood stated.
“It’s about match-winning performances and being able to do special things.
“One innings ago he had a hundred partnership against India to chase down over 350 so we don’t forget about those contributions in our dressing room and they are huge contributions to winning games of cricket. He’s got a lot of talent, we know that.
“I’m sure he’s frustrated he’s not getting more runs but certainly in the dressing room ourselves we’re confident he can turn things around and have those match-winning contributions.”
Rabada’s two wickets in 12 overs for simply 36 runs got here regardless of him being a doubt forward of the sport as a result of an ankle harm sustained in the course of the T20 sequence in opposition to England earlier in the summertime.
The quick bowler insisted that there is no such thing as a animosity between the edges after a confrontation within the construct as much as the primary Test, believing his staff need to adapt to the opposition.
“We’ve always bowled the same and there was a bit in the wicket today and I think we got rewards for putting the ball in the right areas,” Rabada stated.
“Normally you tend to do the same thing over and over in Test cricket but I think you have slightly different plans to different batters.
“Different teams have different strategies and I guess it’s just about adapting to what the opposition throws at you.
“So there’s nothing really going around that brings any animosity or white line fever, but I think it’s just about adapting to the team’s strategy.”
Source: www.unbiased.co.uk