DEPLETED Durham confirmed last night that they are in no condition for the rigours of Twenty20 combat as they again failed to muster a competitive total and lost by four wickets to Derbyshire at Riverside.

After three defeats in four games Durham go into tomorrow's final group match at home to Yorkshire with no chance of progressing to the quarter-finals.

There were no sixes and only six fours as Durham scored 117 for nine, which Derbyshire passed with nine balls to spare in front of a crowd of 5,500.

With Marcus North, Nicky Peng and Paul Collingwood injured, Durham have lacked the necessary quality at the top of the order for a competition in which good players have prospered by playing orthodox strokes rather than slogging indiscriminately.

North, who has been out for two weeks with a groin injury, failed his fitness test and his only chance of tasting Twenty20 action is against Yorkshire. Peng returns to action in the three-day Second X1 Championship game against Lancashire starting tomorrow at South Northumberland.

Durham have batted first in all four matches and after being put in last night they were five for two after two overs. This was not the launching pad required by a team with no real depth in their batting.

Andrew Pratt, top scorer with 35 against Lancashire on Friday, put on 60 in nine overs with his brother, Gary. But the need for extra gas brought Andrew's demise for 24, leaving skipper Jon Lewis to try to mix aggression with sensible caution for the third successive match.

He lost Gary Pratt for 36 with the score on 88 in the 16th over and in the next over Lewis, unbeaten with 49 and 24 in the last two games, miscued an attempted pull to mid-on.

Apart from missing one clear run-out chance, Derbyshire bowled tightly and gave away very little in the field.

Left-arm paceman Mohammad Ali, so often erratic, sent down an exemplary first over, off which Durham were lucky to collect two leg byes and one run off the final ball. The second leg bye stemmed from an overthrow and the run off the bat almost resulted in Phil Mustard being run out as Jon Moss hit the stumps from backward point.

Off the last ball of the second over, bowled by Graeme Welch, Mustard went for a big hit over mid-wicket and was caught on the boundary by Dominic Hewson.

Gareth Breese was struck amidships first ball by Ali then hit a lovely square drive to the boundary before being squared up by a good ball from Ali, which took the edge on the way to wicketkeeper Luke Sutton.

Gary Pratt cut the second ball he faced for four then in the next over his brother hit Welch to the cover boundary and also pulled him for four.

Derbyshire had obviously taken notice of Durham's struggles against slow bowling and brought in off spinner Nathan Dumelow to join left-armer Ant Botha.

They are not quite in the same class as Lancashire's Carl Hooper and Gary Keedy, Friday's tormentors, and both conceded seven off their first over as Durham reached 61 at the halfway stage.

But Botha then bowled an over off which Gary Pratt took only a single off the final ball, and at that point he simply had to press the accelerator.

He succeeded with a lofted four over extra cover off Dumelow, but two balls later his brother went down the pitch and found himself cramped for room on leg stump. He failed to connect in his effort to work the ball away, giving Sutton time to fumble the ball and still complete the stumping.

Despite the wicket, Dumelow was replaced by former Warwickshire medium pacer Mo Sheikh, who wobbled the ball around and brought one back into Gary Pratt to have him lbw.

Ali, rested after two overs, returned for the 17th and Lewis fell to the first ball for 15. Ali also struck with the first ball of his next over, breaching Gordon Muchall's drive to rattle the stumps.

Two balls later Ian Pattison was run out going for a suicidal second and only two had come off the over until Neil Killeen edged the last two balls for four and two.

That took Durham to 111, the total they made against Lancashire, and off the fourth ball of the last over Graeme Bridge lifted Sheikh straight to deep mid-wicket. Then Killeen and Mark Davies were stranded in mid-pitch going for a second off the last ball.

Victoria all-rounder Jon Moss soon had Derbyshire ahead of the clock, pulling Graham Onions for six in the third over after the lively youngster had struck him a painful blow.

With the total on 25 in the fourth over Dominic Hewson went to drive Killeen and was bowled, then Chris Bassano suffered the same fate against Onions.

Moss put on 35 with EU-qualified South African James Bryant and a Derbyshire win was beginning to look a formality when Moss fell for 33.

He cracked a back-foot shot off Davies just to Lewis's right at extra cover and the captain reached out to hold an excellent catch.

When Hassan Adnan went down the pitch to Breese in the next over, Derbyshire were 74 for four in the 12th over and the match was back in the balance.

Skipper Sutton joined Bryant and they got the target down to 27 off five overs, when Davies returned and saw his first ball lofted to long-on for four by Bryant.

Two balls later a pull wide of mid-on flew for another boundary, then a full toss was driven for three and from that point Derbyshire were able to coast it.

There was a slight wobble as Bryant was bowled by Bridge for 41 then Sutton chipped Davies to Pattison at mid-wicket.

But Welch rarely misses an opportunity to rub his native county's noses in the dirt following their failure to show serious interest in him and he quickly settled it with ten not out off seven balls.

Read more about Durham County Cricket Club here.