Mixed messages for tourists as match ends in draw

Concerns over the form of Allan Donald and Lance Klusener were balanced by further encouragement from the batting of Boeta Dippenaar and Jacques Rudolph as South Africa's tour match against New South Wales ended in a tame draw here in Sydney today.

Three days ahead of the vital Second Test against Australia in Melbourne, the Proteas were left with major headaches after Donald and Klusener again failed to impress on the fourth and final day of the match.

Veteran pace bowler Donald (0/27) was given a reduced workout, bowling just four overs after a late South African declaration left the match heading for only one possible outcome. But he was distinctly unthreatening, conceding 15 runs in an opening two-over spell before giving up another 12 runs in a later two-over stint as New South Wales ended at 2/135 in pursuit of an unrealistic victory target of 383 from just 39 overs.

Captain Shaun Pollock later attributed the 35-year-old's wicketless match to an ongoing battle with an injury sustained in Perth in an earlier game on tour, but conceded that there were doubts surrounding his readiness for a Second Test appearance.

"I don't know (about his chances); he is still battling with his foot so we will have to monitor that," said Pollock.

"It would have been nice had he have come through pain free."

Donald has claimed just one wicket to this point of the tour.

All-rounder Klusener is another player without a guaranteed Test berth, after he completed a pair with the bat and claimed just one wicket in the match with the ball.

More worryingly, he fell to a mistimed drive at a spinner for the third time in four innings today - this time playing all around a ball from left armer Mark Higgs (1/35) as the Proteas suffered a collapse that saw four wickets tumble for the addition of 11 runs shortly before lunch.

"We haven't selected the Test team as of yet but obviously it will be a discussion point," said Pollock of Klusener's hold on a berth for Melbourne.

"We are aware of the fact that Lance is in the side as a batter and that's how the number six position is decided," he added.

Pollock was understandably more upbeat about the readiness of batting tyros Dippenaar (31*) and Rudolph (28) after each had again looked composed in the midst of South Africa's progress to a second innings score of 5/269 before a mid-afternoon declaration.

"They've got a chance (of playing in the Test), though we discuss team selection only the night before," he said.

Both youngsters shone where others in the middle order failed, joining with opener Gary Kirsten (88) and Pollock (36*) to help the Proteas to their huge lead.

They also looked comfortable for periods against Stuart MacGill (4/89), though the leg spinner was again the standout member of a New South Wales attack and reinforced his claims on a Sydney Test berth in just over a week's time.

MacGill had Kirsten sweeping off a top edge; Rudolph beaten down the leg side; and again mesmerised youngster Justin Ontong (0) into attaining a thin outside edge as he weaved his way to four wickets in the innings and nine for the match.

"The wicket (for the Sydney Test) will not be massively different, it's going to turn and the South Africans don't play the spinners too well," said New South Wales coach, Steve Rixon, in the wake of MacGill's performance.

"Unfortunately for us we had no one bowling down the other end ... the other bowlers were not doing their job. He's out-bowled everyone in this game."

Pollock also endowed MacGill's effort with praise, and viewed the chance to practise against a top-class leg spinner as having been one of the great benefits of the match.

There was less about which he could enthuse in the bowling as local openers Brett van Deinsen (61) and Greg Mail (54) batted through most of the lead-up to the game's termination half an hour before its scheduled end.