THE shake-up in the batting order brought rich rewards for Durham yesterday as Gareth Breese launched the innings with 76 and Marcus North made a glorious unbeaten 190.

Batting at No 4 for the first time after opening the innings with modest success, North played himself in carefully, reaching four off 26 balls at lunch. He then thrashed 103 of Durham's 146 runs in the afternoon session and completed the day with an unbroken stand of 173 with debut boy Kyle Coetzer.

The 20-year-old Scot took 24 minutes to get off the mark and did so rather fortuitously with a skied hook which dropped harmlessly behind square.

Otherwise he showed good composure and shot selection and there was a touch of class about the on-drive which brought the first of the six boundaries in his 105-ball 50. By the close he was playing almost as fluently as his partner in reaching 62 and Durham achieved maximum batting points for the first time this season on 407 for four.

North played all the shots from open-faced steers to third man to wristy flicks through on-side spaces off the front foot. Only Martin Love and John Morris have played bigger championship innings for Durham.

Unfortunately, North's second championship century might prove no more beneficial than the first after two days had been washed out at Derby.

Following the first day's washout at Sophia Gardens, more horrendous weather is forecast for tomorrow and Durham will do well to dismiss Glamorgan twice on a good pitch without Shoaib Akhtar.

The new Pakistan coach, Bob Woolmer, is expected in Cardiff to speak to Shoaib tomorrow and there will be some in the Durham camp who would shed no tears if he is whisked away to the Asia Cup.

The paceman arrived at breakfast yesterday clutching a medicine bottle and was ruled out, apparently by a virus. He has played in only two of Durham's nine championship games and is likely to miss the last four or five because of preparations for the ICC Champions Trophy.

His condition meant it would have been too big a gamble to include him as team sheets have to be exchanged before the toss and Jon Lewis has not had much luck with spinning the coin.

This time he won the toss for only the third time in the nine games and shared Durham's first championship half-century opening stand of the season with Breese.

Batting at seven, the Jamaican had a top score of 11 in his five championship knocks since his match-winning 165 not out at Taunton.

But he looked very much the part as an opener, initially playing second fiddle to Lewis before cutting loose with four fours in the 11th over off Darren Thomas. Two were driven through the off-side, one was clipped past square leg and the fourth was a leg glance.

That took him to 30 out of 49, beating the season's previous best opening stand of 47 at Trent Bridge.

Although the previous day's gale had subsided, the seamers still struggled against the diagonal wind and Robert Croft was on in the 12th over, sharing the bulk of the load from the River Taff End with left-arm spinner Dean Cosker.

David Harrison started at the Taff End but when he switched for the 14th over he swung one through Lewis's intended off drive to hit off and middle stumps.

The captain looked disconsolate as he had been in no trouble and must have sensed a much bigger score than his 27.

A slog/sweep to mid-wicket off Croft gave Breese his ninth four and took him to 50 off 67 balls, but he lost Gordon Muchall for 23 with the toal on 103.

Muchall was playing towards mid-wicket when he was adjudged lbw to Thomas by umpire Trevor Jesty.

Breese was on 67 at lunch but added only nine before being bowled when going for a big hit over mid-wicket off a ball which Cosker gave a little more air.

By this stage North had switched first gear to overdrive and the only time he let up was when nursing Coetzer through his first few overs.

North was slightly lucky when he just cleared mid-on off Cosker on 13 and a few streaky edges just after tea confirmed that this was his day.

He soon began to middle the ball again, playing all the strokes and placing the ball superbly.

Glamorgan tried to snare him by placing two men back either side of the square leg boundary and bowling short, but he bisected the pair for his 13th four to reach his century off 134 balls.

There were also two sixes driven wide of long-on off the spinners, but he ignored the aerial route in going from 100 to 150 in 61 balls with seven more fours.

Then he really cut loose until dropping anchor in the last 15 minutes to make sure he could start again today.

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