Lancashire (6 July) Match abandoned; Durham (1pt), Lancashire (1pt) As Lancashire Lightning were already through and Durham Dynamos already knocked out of the Twenty20 Cup, the rain at the Riverside Ground mattered little to the outcome of the Twenty20 Cup group stages. Both sides shared a point in the game. (Cricinfo scorecard) July Durham came back from the Twenty20 Cup to play a Championship match against Lancashire and fell to their first defeat of the season - which was also the highest margin of defeat thus far in the County Championship, beating Durham's innings-and-216-run win over Leicestershire three months earlier. Meanwhile, they lost their National League lead without playing a game, as Sussex Sharks beat Kent Spitfires to go top - and six days later, when Durham had the chance to go past Sussex again, they lost to Warwickshire in a game featuring less than 300 runs in total. Durham rounded off the month with three matches without loss, however, as they beat Derbyshire in the League and Somerset in the Championship to have a 24.5-point lead at the end of the month. In the League, however, Warwickshire overtook them as they fell to third place. County Championship: Durham v Lancashire (8–11 July) Lancashire (22pts) beat Durham (1pt) by an innings and 228 runs Durham still lacked Michael Hussey, Paul Collingwood and Steve Harmison, and finally some opponents exposed that, as Durham suffered not only their first loss, but the largest loss in the entire Division Two this season - beating their own win over Leicestershire by an innings and 216 runs. Their replacements contributed, as Nathan Astle made 81 runs, Jonathan Lewis 36 and Ashley Noffke took two wickets for 89, but Lancashire still dominated. After winning the toss, Durham made 167 against Lancashire's bowling - James Anderson and Dominic Cork took two each, Glen Chapple and Gary Keedy three. Then, Mal Loye outscored all of Durham with a 200, and Dominic Cork an unbeaten 104 to give Lancashire a 363-run lead on first innings. Chapple then took four for 18, as Durham were bowled out for an even lower second-innings score of 135 - leaving them losers by an innings and 228 runs, though they retained their lead in the County Championship. (Cricinfo scorecard) National League: Durham v Warwickshire (17 July) Warwickshire (4pts) beat Durham (0pts) by five wickets Durham Dynamos failed to take advantage of winning the