England cling to Alastair Cook on rain-affected first day against South Africa

England 171-4: The former captain held England's innings together as two of the hosts' three debutants failed to convince with bat

A battling and unbeaten showing from Alastair Cook gave England hope on the first day (Getty)

England went for novelty to save their summer at the Oval, but by the end of the first day here they were back in an old familiar position, clinging on around Alastair Cook.

As the South African attack took on the England top-order, Cook was the only man to put up serious resistance. He dug in to reach an unbeaten 82 at close, an invaluable innings in these unsettling, testing circumstances. Without it, England would have been in a far worse place than 171 for four at stumps, and might have been staring down the barrel of going behind in the series.

After humiliating themselves at Trent Bridge, the challenge here was for the England batsmen to hold off the South African attack and not crumble at the first sign of pressure. They gave three debuts, with two of them, Tom Westley and Dawid Malan, in the top five.

With England winning the toss and batting on a quick pitch, they had ideas about taking the game to South Africa from the start. It did not work out like that. Under general murk, rain intervened to force an early lunch, a mid-afternoon break and an 80-minute tea. They went off for rain at 6pm, play was called off half an hour later, and even then there were only 59 overs bowled.

More important than any of that, though, was the South African attack. With Kagiso Rabada back in the team their four seamers bowled with a relentless focus, getting a grip on the game straight after lunch and never letting get back in. Three weeks ago at Lord’s on the first day England stumbled to 76 for four before surging back to 357 for five at stumps. There was no such counter-attack this time, just a slow stabilisation to keep England in the game.

Morris cut Westley's early promise short (Getty)

Cook did what he does best all day. He was beaten by Morne Morkel a few times but gave no real chances and set himself up for his first century since returning to the ranks of the players last winter. He still stands alone as the only English batsman keen to occupy the crease.

It was exactly what England needed after how they started the day. The batsmen may have changed here but the problems remained the same for a team which struggles to impose itself with the bat.

Keaton Jennings has failed to do that all summer and after scores of 0 and 3 at Trent Bridge he reverted today with a duck no more convincing than his last one. Never looking confident against Vernon Philander, he lasted nine balls before giving Dean Elgar a low catch at third slip.

That brought in Westley, tasked with being a stronger presence at three than Gary Ballance has been. Westley looked strong off his legs, scoring the first run not to come from Cook’s bat after 29 minutes of play. He batted with purpose, smacking one from Keshav Maharaj uppishly through extra-cover and then another through midwicket.

Malan was beaten by the ball of the day (Getty)

When rain forced lunch 16 minutes early Westley was unbeaten on 24, and looking like a man with the shots to make at three for England. The question was whether he had the nerve. And at his third ball after lunch, from Chris Morris, Westley carelessly drove it to second slip. All that good work undone, and England 64 for two.

That brought in Joe Root who tried to raise the tempo, going on the attack against Morris. But the momentum was turning against England, and when Morne Morkel came on and bowled three perfect overs from the Pavilion End that cost just one run, the pressure was back on. Root turned the opening day at Lord’s but here he could not get going. Soon enough he was anxious, he nicked a very good one from Philander, allowing Quentin de Kock to take an even better one-handed catch. That ended a stand of 49, and still England struggled to build.

Malan was the new number five, another debutant, and he did not even show the promise of Westley. He shuffled around for 17 balls, scoring one run, before getting the ball of the day. Rabada had struggled to find his line early on until an inswinging Yorker at 88mph destroyed Malan’s stumps and left him sprawled on the floor for good measure.

This left England 120 for four and had all the remaining overs been bowled things might have got very much worse for them. But Ben Stokes came in and, setting aside his natural instincts, provided steadier partnership for Cook than anyone else had. They made it through to an elongated tea and survived the 30-minute evening session that could have lasted two hours. But by staying in the game they kept alive the prospect of a competitive total tomorrow, which is far more than the day had promised at the start.