DAY 1

After an entertaining first day at New Road Worcestershire were 70-3 at stumps in reply to South Africa's 237-9 declared.

The South Africans won the toss and chose to bat on a glorious day, in front of a very healthy crowd, but Chris Russell bowled well in his opening spell as he took the wickets of both Jacques Rudolph, bowled for 7, and Alviro Petersen, caught at second slip by Daryl Mitchell for 10, to leave the tourists on 21-2 after 8 overs.  Captain AB de Villiers and JP Duminy then steadied the ship, with De Villiers the aggressor, by putting on a third wicket partnership of 53 until Duminy was lbw to Richard Jones for 5 and at lunch the South Africans had reached 107-3.

After lunch de Villiers and Albie Morkel both looked in control, as De Villiers got to his 50 off 58 balls and Albie Morkel also reaching his 50 off 69 balls, but their fourth wicket partnership ended on 91 when Albie Morkel was bowled by Russell for 50 off 77 balls, with 9 fours, with the score on 165-4 in the 42nd over.

Worcestershire then made further inroads as Joe Leach took his first wicket for the County when De Villiers hit straight to James Cameron at cover for 80 off 118 balls, with 12 fours, and then the spin duo of Moeen Ali and Shaaiq Choudhry combined to take the next four wickets, either side of tea, as Dale Steyn was lbw to Ali for 3, Morne Morkel was caught behind by Ben Scott off Choudhry for 7, Thami Tsolekile was caught by Mitchell at first slip of Ali for 3 and when Robin Peterson was caught by Cameron at deep mid-on off Choudhry for 8 the South Africans declared on 235-9 off 65.5 overs, with Vernon Philander unbeaten on 40.

The Worcestershire wicket-takers were Russell, finishing with figures of 3-40 off 14 overs, Ali 2-25 off 8 overs, Choudhry 2-20 off 4.5 overs, Leach 1-17 off 11 overs and Jones 1-50 off 11 overs.

22 overs were left in the day when Worcestershire went into bat and Dale Steyn struck with the first ball of the innings when Mitchell edged to Petersen, diving to his right, at second slip and then in the first ball in Steyn's second over Ali also edged to Peterson to leave the home side on 4-2.

Matt Pardoe and James Cameron then battled for over 12 overs, as they put on 43 for the third wicket, until Cameron was caught by Albie Morkel at first slip off Morne Morkel for 14 and then Pardoe and Neil Pinner saw out the remaining overs as Worcestershire ended the day on 70-3 off 22 overs, with Pardoe unbeaten on a gutsy 40 and Pinner unbeaten on 5.

DAY 2

Although the match was drawn Worcestershire produced a creditable performance against the South Africans at New Road.

Worcestershire started the day on 70-3 and soon lost Neil Pinner when he edged behind to Thami Tsolekile off Vernon Philander for 11, with the score on 80-4 after 30 overs.  Matt Pardoe got to a deserved 50 off 102 balls, when he struck a cover drive to the boundary off Albie Morkel, before he edged a Lonwabo Tsotsobe delivery to Tsolekile for 53 off 117 balls, with 8 fours.  Then Joe Leach was bowled by Morne Morkel for 16 as Worcestershire went to lunch at 139-6 off 49 overs.

In the afternoon session Aneesh Kapil took the attack to the South African bowlers and along with Ben Scott they put on 81 for the seventh wicket.  Kapil got to his 50 off just 44 balls before he was bowled by Robin Peterson for 67 off 80 balls, with 12 fours, with the score on 197-7 in the 62nd over.  Peterson then cleaned up the tail as he trapped Scott lbw for 33 and bowled David Lucas, next ball, for 0 and although Worcestershire got a first innings lead when Richard Jones hit Peterson for 6, over long-on, Jones was caught behind by A B de Villiers off Peterson for 21, to leave Chris Russell unbeaten on 12, and Worcestershire were all out for 245 off 72.5 overs.

South Africa trailed by 8 runs when they started their second innings but in the 5 overs they faced before tea they lost two wickets as Alviro Petersen dragged a Lucas delivery to the stumps for 11 and JP Duminy was bowled by Russell for 2.  At tea the tourists were on 16-2.

After tea South Africa lost two further wickets as Russell took the wickets of both Albie Morkel, bowled for 18, and Dale Steyn, caught by Daryl Mitchell at first slip for 0, but inevitably the match ended as a draw at 5pm, with the tourists on 67-4 off 18 overs.  The two not out batsmen were Jacques Rudolph (28) and Morne Morkel (4) and for Worcestershire Russell finished with figures of 3-32 off 9 overs and the other wicket-taker was Lucas, with 1-8 off 2 overs.