AFTER the euphoria of Lord’s came the anti-climax of Edgbaston as Durham ended their season with their third mauling in two seasons by the Warwickshire Bears.

On the ground where they lost by 318 runs in the second match last season they suffered their second innings defeat by this season’s runners-up, having fought valiantly against all other opponents.

In the home match the margin was an innings and 188, this time it was an innings and 13 as they were dismissed for 215, despite a gallant 52 by Gordon Muchall and 38 by Ryan Pringle.

Following his unbeaten 63 in the first innings, Pringle was again largely untroubled and struck some defiant blows before he was last out to the eighth edged catch of the innings. Rikki Clarke held six in the match at second slip.

Durham have no answer to Keith Barker or Jeetan Patel, although there was some attempt to counter the dual threat by meeting them head-on.

There was a plan against Barker to bat well out of the crease, at least for those who felt comfortable doing so, while Muchall took on Patel by going down the track.

Barker’s bite was neutered in his opening spell as Mark Stoneman made a fluent 45, which took him 1,004 championship runs.

But after Patel took two of the three wickets to fall by lunch, Barker returned to take three of the next four, taking his tally to 40 in eight matches against Durham.

It is more than twice as many as he has taken against anyone else and of this season’s 16 all but three have come from edged catches.

Durham took 30 minutes to wrap up the Warwickshire innings after the hosts resumed on 413 for eight.

Chris Rushworth took his season’s championship tally to a very creditable 64 when he finished with six for 100.

After bowling round the wicket to the left-handed Oliver Hannon-Dalby he switched and immediately had him caught behind.

In the next over Varun Aaron picked up his second wicket when Patel slashed a sharp chance to Scott Borthwick at slip to depart for 45 with the total on 429, a lead of 228.

Stoneman took guard well out of his crease and with the help of an edged four and a drive through extra cover he took ten off Barker’s opening over.

But in the second over Keaton Jennings fell to the fourth ball, recording his fourth duck in his last five innings of a season in which his desire to play in everything has taken its toll. He needs a rest but will come back stronger.

Jennings pushed forward and edged low to second slip off Hannon-Dalby, who was then cut twice to the boundary by Stoneman and was later hit for four successive fours by Muchall.

Borthwick had made 15 when he edged Patel through the slips for four, but his next nick was held by Tim Ambrose.

A streaky four took Stoneman to the 41 he needed for 1,000, but he added only four more before he edged Patel to slip ten minutes before lunch.

Muchall was off the mark first ball with an edged four off Patel, then hit three well-timed boundaries and one streaky one off Hannon-Dalby in the last over before lunch to reach 28.

His advances down the pitch to Patel became a little frenzied, as did his scampering of singles when he drove the ball to mid-on.

When Michael Richardson called for a risky one to cover he was sent back and would have been run out had the throw hit the stumps. He wasn’t so lucky next time, when he responded to Muchall’s call and was beaten by a direct hit from mid-on.

That was an unfortunate end to a stand of 47 and it opened the door for Barker to take the next three wickets.

Paul Collingwood followed a ball slanted across him and his edge would have beaten most second slips, but not the leaping Clarke.

In his final innings Gareth Breese swept Patel for four but fell for seven when he edged Barker to Ambrose and Muchall went the same way after reaching 50 off 53 balls. He was drawn into driving well wide of off stump.

Mark Wood contributed 17 to a stand of 47 with Pringle before he tried to drive a third successive four off Patel and inside edged a quicker ball into his stumps.

Warwickshire turned to the pace of Boyd Rankin to finish the job, and as in the match at Riverside it was all over in just over two and a half days.