LONDON, England (CMC):

West Indies coach John Dyson has backed his side to save the opening Test at Lord's but has urged them to produce a better second innings batting effort.

West Indies were left facing a tall order on Thursday when they were forced to follow on 225 runs behind after being dismissed for 152 in response to England's 377.

At the close, they were already struggling at 39 for two with two of their leading run scorers in captain Chris Gayle (0) and Ramnaresh Sarwan (1) already back in the pavilion.

"I certainly hope we can [save this game]. We obviously have to bat extremely well," Dyson told reporters.

"We may get a little bit of help from the weather, with a bit of luck but we won't rely on that. We just have to bat well.

"Today hasn't been a good day for us at all but there's still a few days left and we've just got to fight."

The Windies were undermined by debutant seamer Graham Onions who captured five for 38, and off-spinner Graeme Swann who claimed three for 16.

They engineered a dramatic collapse which saw West Indies lose their last nine wickets for 82 runs after they seemed on course for a strong total at 70 for one.

More amazingly, the tourists lost four wickets for 11 runs in the space of a mere seven balls in the final session, to crash from 117 for five to 128 for nine in the afternoon session.

Good bowling

"I think it was primarily good bowling. You've got to admit that the England bowlers came out and bowled with pace and they bowled with intent and they bowled the right areas," said Dyson, the former Australia opener.

"And the debutant (Onions) congratulations to him, five wickets on your debut at Lord's, [it was a] fantastic effort."