DURHAM do at least have Saturday's century-maker Marcus North in form as they prepare to go into Wednesday's C & G Trophy second round tie at home to Sussex with the Western Australian as their only overseas player.

It was hoped that first-choice pair Shoaib Akhtar and Herschelle Gibbs would be here in time for the game, but the arrival of both keeps being delayed.

Gibbs could be here on Wednesday - too late to play in the match and in any case Durham first have to be sure of his fitness following his hamstring strain. If he doesn't play in the four-day game against Essex starting at Riverside on Friday he will be left with only five championship appearances before disappearing on July 14.

Shoaib is said to have provided evidence to the Pakistan board that he did not fake his injury in the final Test against India, but they are still not satisfied. So it remains unclear when he will travel.

Other than Andrew Pratt with 44, North was the only batsman to impress on Saturday as he thrashed 119 out of a total of 232 at Derby. It was one of the fastest championship centuries scored for Durham as it came off only 94 balls, and he reached his hundred with the total on 145.

North's effort should have enabled Durham to cruise to a second batting point as they still had 23 overs to make the remaining 74 runs when he was out.

He had been particularly severe on left-arm spinner Ant Botha, driving him for three sixes, but the South African British passport holder finished with four wickets as the last four went for six runs.

Durham took seven points from the draw and Derbyshire 12, and Durham coach Martyn Moxon revealed that there had never been any intention of playing for anything other than bonus points.

When Derbyshire reached 350 after an hour's play on Saturday, they could have declared with both teams forfeiting an innings and Durham being given around 90 overs to score the runs.

Derbyshire were never keen on this because they had four seamers injured before the match, and they lost another one on Saturday when their best bowler, Kevin Dean, pulled up in his fourth over and limped off with a knee problem.

But Moxon had no complaints, saying: "Conditions weren't really fit when we began at noon on the third day, but we wanted to try to get as many points as we could out of the game.

"Both sides were quite happy to bat and bowl and see what happened. If we had taken our chances they would not have scored so many."

Although Graeme Welch was his usual nuisance to his native county, the match will be remembered only for the contributions of the two Western Australia left-handers. North averaged 56.52 in first-class matches for his state last winter, while teammate Chris Rogers averaged 53.52 and they looked a class above the others at Derby.

Rogers added only five to his overnight 151 before edging Liam Plunkett to Andrew Pratt, and with Mark Davies picking up two wickets Derbyshire limped along to 390 for eight at lunch.

That meant they had to bat on for ten minutes to claim maximum batting points before declaring with Welch unbeaten on 37.

He was also his usual naggingly accurate self with the ball and North survived a big lbw appeal in the first over then got off the mark with a leading edge past the bowler when aiming to mid-wicket.

There were few other errors, however, as he soon began to drive sweetly through extra cover and displayed a range of cuts.

The second of his sixes off Botha took him to 99 and he also had 15 fours in his hundred, but no other members of the top six got going.

Two were bowled by Nick Walker, a 19-year-old seamer signed from Hertfordshire in the team only because of injuries. Jon Lewis jabbed half forward at his sixth ball and had his off stump rattled, while Nicky Peng played on.

Gareth Breese went in at the fall of Lewis's wicket in the second over and was immediately off the mark with a wristy pick-up for four in front of square.

He got to 15 before left-armer Dean came on for the tenth over and swung his third and fourth balls back in to bring big lbw appeals. The second was upheld, although Breese was well forward.

Gary Pratt was cramped by Welch into an ungainly cut which edged to the keeper, and after Peng's rare failure on this ground Durham were 85 for four.

Ian Pattison contributed 23 to a stand of 87 in 19 overs, but he was never comfortable against Welch, who had him lbw on the back foot.

North was sixth out when a little extra bounce from Botha persuaded him to readjust and attempt another upper cut, but it provided a comfortable catch.

Things went quiet on his exit until Andrew Pratt hooked a six behind square and pulled a four through mid-on in one Walker over to bring up the 200 in the 47th over.

There were still 16 overs available to earn the second batting point, but once Plunkett was bowled by Botha for seven the rest swiftly followed.

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