AB de Villiers will have time behind the stumps first up as Graeme Smith opted to field under fairly cloudy skies after winning the toss in South Africa's three-day tour match against Kent. Sam Northeast, Kent captain, admitted that he would have done the same, given the conditions.

The match is the first first-class fixture for the tourists, who played a two-day practice game in Taunton earlier this week. Mark Boucher's eye injury dominated headlines in that game but there were also valuable runs for Hashim Amla and JP Duminy and a good outing with the ball for Lonwabo Tsostobe.

The left-armer will not feature in this match, with South Africa fielding an XI that is likely to match their team for the first Test. Opening batsman Alviro Petersen returned to fitness after suffering a joint sprain in his left foot and will take his place at the top of the order, which will allow for Jacques Rudolph to move back down to No.6.

Duminy will occupy the additional batting spot created by Boucher's absence while the bowling remains unchanged. Robin Peterson, the left-arm spinner, was left out and Marchant de Lange was not in contention as he is still awaiting results of his back scan.

Kent 1 Sam Northeast, 2 Daniel Bell-Drummond, 3 Sam Billings, 4 Alex Blake, 5 Matt Coles, 6 Simon Cook, 7 Ben Harmison, 8 Mike Powell, 9 Adam Riley, 10 Charlie Shreck, 11 Ivan Thomas

South Africans 1 Graeme Smith, 2 Alviro Petersen, 3 Hashim Amla, 4 Jacques Kallis, 5 AB de Villiers, 6 Jacques Rudolph, 7 JP Duminy, 8 Vernon Philander, 9 Dale Steyn, 10 Morne Morkel, 11 Imran Tahir