North guides Western Australia to draw

Western Australia 434 (North 110, Agar 93, Whiteman 65, Botha 4-120) and 3 for 202 (North 84*, MR Marsh 65*) drew with South Australia 601 (Hughes 204, Klinger 125, Head 98)
Scorecard

Marcus North maintained his surprising resurgence as an opening batsman as Western Australia played out a high-scoring draw with South Australia in the first match at a redeveloped Adelaide Oval.

While a rare crowd of 17,201 took in the Oval's new, AFL-approved vista, its drop-in pitch failed to deteriorate quickly enough to afford the bowlers enough variation for a result, allowing North and Mitchell Marsh to play out the final afternoon in relative comfort after conceding a 167-run first innings deficit to the Redbacks.

SA had batted swiftly in the morning to try to build their lead, following Phillip Hughes' monolithic 204, a century for Michael Klinger and 98 for the young left-hander Travis Head.

The Warriors were thus left with little option but to play out the day for a draw, something North and Marsh accomplished after the innings wobbled with the losses of Cameron Bancroft, John Rogers and Shaun Marsh. North now has scores of 45, 118*, 50, 37, 110 and 84* since moving up to open in the Sheffield Shield this season after a long career in the middle order.