De Villiers And Morkel Hit Fifties At Worcester

AB de Villiers helped South Africa recover after losing both openers.

Chris Russell celebrates the second of his two early wickets.

De Villiers And Morkel Hit Fifties At Worcester

Dale Steyn then took two early wickets when Worcestershire batted.

©Action Images / Ian Smith Livepic*3

South Africans 237-9d (de Villiers 80, Russell 3-40) v
Worcestershire 70-3 (Steyn 2-26)
Tour Match, New Road, Day One

AB de Villiers and Albie Morkel enjoyed some useful time in the middle on the opening day of the South Africans’ tour match against Worcestershire. They both made half centuries, while Dale Steyn continued his good form from the Test match and took two wickets when the home side batted.

Unfortunately for the tourists, both Alviro Petersen and Jacques Rudolph failed in their bid for batting practice ahead of Thursday’s second Test at Headingley by falling in Chris Russell’s opening spell. The 23 year-old from the Isle of Wight has yet to play for Worcestershire in first-class cricket, but he removed Rudolph in his third over and Petersen in his fourth to give the home side the ideal start.

JP Duminy stayed with de Villiers during a third-wicket partnership of 53, although he struggled and made only five from 34 balls before falling victim to promising young seamer Richard Jones. It was the fourth-wicket stand between de Villiers and Morkel which was the main one in the innings. Morkel hit 50 from 77 balls before being bowled to give Russell his third, while de Villiers fell shortly afterwards for 80 to Joe Leach.

Vernon Philander, due to the absence of Jacques Kallis, Hashim Amla and Graeme Smith, strode to the wicket at number six and clearly enjoyed his promotion. The all-rounder had reached 40 by the time stand-in captain de Villiers decided to declare with the score on 237 for nine.

Worcestershire suffered a disastrous start, losing Daryl Mitchell first ball to Dale Steyn and Moeen Ali in his next over for a duck. This left them on four for two, but James Cameron and Matthew Pardoe added 43, before the former was dismissed caught A Morkel, bowled M Morkel for 14. Academy graduate Neil Pinner then joined Pardoe and the two took the home side to stumps on 70 for three, with Pardoe unbeaten on 40.