DURHAM moved into joint top place with Warwickshire in the County Championship when they beat Worcestershire by an innings and 25 runs, although Lancashire were threatening to overhaul them by beating Yorkshire.

It took Durham only 55 minutes to wrap up their third win in six games and it looked like being over even more quickly when Scott Borthwick took two wickets in two balls in the fourth over.

Gareth Andrew had pulled him for six and driven him to long-on for four to reach 50, but he pulled the next ball straight into the hands of Ben Scott at deep mid-wicket.

Australian Damien Wright offered a simple return catch off the next ball and when Richard Jones was run out for a duck in the next over three wickets had gone down for one run.

But Alan Richardson helped wicketkeeper Ben Scott put on 54 for the ninth wicket, with Scott repeatedly cutting Steve Harmison to the boundary in reaching 73.

Harmison finally had him caught by Stokes at third slip to finish with seven wickets in his comeback match. With the injured Adrian Shankar unable to bat, Worcestershire were all out for 345.