An unbeaten 33 from captain Nasser Hussain helped England bat out a draw in their opening first-class tour match against a Combined Western Province/Boland XI at Newlands.

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Set a victory target of 250 in a minimum of 47 overs, England reached 82-2 at stumps.

The visitors lost Mark Butcher early on, run out in a misunderstanding with fellow opener Michael Atherton for three in the sixth over of their second innings.

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Atherton also fell after tea, brilliantly caught for 24 at mid-wicket by Rashaad Magiet after he pulled seamer Donovan Koch, forcing Hussain and Yorkshire batsman Michael Vaughan (16) to adopt a cautious approach to avoid England slipping to a damaging loss.

"We're not overly worried about Mark," Hussain said. "He's a good player, he's got plenty of Test runs and he's got runs against South Africa before.

"Everyone would like to get runs in the middle. He's an outward-going lad with a lot of confidence in himself and I wouldn't be surprised if he went out next week and got some runs.

"We would be looking to play him at Bloemfontein and you have to remember that before this game everyone was asking about Chris Adams and he's gone out and got 89, and hopefully that will be the case with Mark as well - he's got a couple of games to do that."

The Combined XI had resumed 160 runs ahead on 51 for four, but lost Kenny Jackson in the sixth over of the day when he pushed a short delivery from Alan Mullally straight to Darren Maddy at short leg.

Ashwell Prince added 55 with Steve Palframan before miscueing an attempted drive off Vaughan which Andrew Caddick collected in the deep.

But Palframan progressed to an unbeaten 43 before captain Louis Koen finally declared midway through the afternoon session to set England their victory target.

Scorecard

England first innings 249 (C.Adams 89, M.Atherton 83)
Western Province/Boland second innings (overnight 51-4)

R.Magiet b Caddick 12
J.Henderson c Butcher b Mullally 3
L.Koen lbw Mullally 25
H.Ackerman c Hamilton b Tudor 10
A.Prince c Caddick b Vaughan 31
K.Jackson c Maddy b Mullally 2
S.Palframan not out 43
D.Koch not out 10

Extras (lb-2 nb-2) 4
Total (six wickets declared, 63 overs) 140

Fall of wickets: 1-3 2-36 3-47 4-51 5-54 6-109
Bowling: Caddick 14-7-24-1, Mullally 14-5-31-3, Tudor 11-4-18-1, Vaughan 12-2-31-1 (1nb), Hamilton 5-1-19-0 (1nb), Butcher 3-1-3-0, Maddy 4-0-12-0

England second innings

M.Butcher run out 3
M.Atherton c Magiet b Koch 24
N.Hussain not out 33
M.Vaughan not out 16

Extras (b-2 lb-1 nb-3) 6
Total (two wickets, 41 overs) 82

Fall of wickets: 1-11 2-30
Did not bat: Alec Stewart, Chris Adams, Darren Maddy, Gavin Hamilton, Alex Tudor, Andy Caddick, Alan Mullally.

Bowling: Telemachus 7-1-20-0, Willoughby 7-3-8-0, C.Henderson 14-5-24-0, Koch 6-2-12-1 (2nb), J.Henderson 7-2-15-0 (1nb)