DAY 1

Worcestershire's 2nd XI campaign finally began at Ombersley in a 3 day friendly match against Hampshire.

The start was delayed by 1 hour due to a damp pitch, with Hampshire winning the toss and putting Worcestershire into bat, and one of the umpires for this match is Marais Erasmus, from South Africa, who will be umpiring in the forthcoming Test Series between England and the West Indies.

Jack Manuel and Shaaiq Choudhry took the score to 38 for Worcestershire before Manuel had to retire on 31 when he injured his knee.  After losing Alexei Kervezee (1) and Neil Pinner (3) Choudhry and Gareth Andrew put on 77 for the third wicket until Choudhry was out for 32.  Andrew played some attacking shots as he hit seven fours and two sixes before he was out for 69 off 121 balls, with the score on 150.

After losing Brett D'Oliveira for 9, at 157-5, Manuel returned as he eventually went on to make 47 and Ben Cox was the other batsman to make a significant contribution, with 30, as Worcestershire were all out for 236 in 92.5 overs.

Worcs had 9 overs to bowl, with Jack Shantry and Chris Russell splitting the overs between them, and Hampshire ended the day on 22-0, with Shantry particularly economical as he bowled 5 overs for 4 runs, with 4 maidens.

DAY 2

Play began on time at 11am, with Chris Russell proving expensive by conceding 18, including 3 No Balls, in the 3rd over of the day.  Russell was replaced by Jack Shantry who struck with his third ball of the day by trapping Luke Thomas LBW for 15 and, along with Gareth Andrew, they conceded 32 runs in 14 overs.

But once Shantry and Andrew were removed from the attack Michael Roberts (64*) and Bilal Shafayat (56*) played aggressively and they both got to their half-centuries before the players went off for rain just before 1pm, with Hampshire on 147-1 off 39 overs.  During the lunch break the rain got heavier and play was abandoned for the day at 2:30pm.

For Worcestershire Shantry has figures of 1-18 off 12 overs, with 7 maidens, Russell - 9 overs for 53 runs, Andrew - 8 overs for 18 runs, Adam Shepherd - 4 overs for 22 runs, Nick Harrison - 4 overs for 24 runs and Shaaiq Choudhry - 2 overs for 12 runs.

DAY 3

Heavy overnight rain meant that there was no play on the third day so the match was abandoned as a draw.