The plan didn't come together

We were all very disappointed to lose our re-arranged Friends Provident quarter final match against Kent on Thursday last week. It was switched to Beckenham in the end because of the ground conditions at Canterbury after a deluge there the day before the game.

Despite the switch we still expected to go there, put up a good fight and win the game but it didn’t go according to plan. Kent played well and set a pretty good total on what was a good out ground wicket which proved to be too many for us as we spluttered along and lost wicket in quick succession which is what you cant afford to do.

The schedule of matches hasn’t been that kind to us what with being away at Tunbridge Wells and then at Whitgift School after which we had to sandwich the quarter final in before travelling back to Taunton late on Thursday evening.

The championship match against Yorkshire was very much an up and down sort of affair and went right down to the wire. We threw it away in the first innings and only took two batting points but we then got ourselves back into the game having bowled them out for 200 in their second innings.

The pressure told though and chasing 323 to win we lost four wicket wickets early on, and then looked like we were going to rescue it, but in the end we didn’t quite get home, which was disappointing.

The first division is going to be very keenly contested this year because there doesn’t seem to be a run away leader.

From our experiences so far there are certainly no easy games and every point could end up being vital when it gets to the end of the season.

Twenty20 cricket is a great concept, one that has really captured the imagination and attracted a new generation of spectators to the game.

When it was first introduced to the cricket calendar back in 2003 I think that its popularity took many people involved in the world of cricket by surprise. Since then however it has gone from strength to strength and it attracts capacity crowds wherever it is played.

Certainly everybody at Somerset seems to enjoy it and all the thrills and spills of the short form of the game have really caught on with our home fans at the County Ground and there is no better place to play.

There is nothing that we enjoy more than playing in front of a packed home crowd who cheer every run and wicket, so you can bet that all of the Somerset players will be going out to do their best to win all of our games and send our supporters home feeling happy!

We have got a lot of players in our squad who play expansive cricket and are ideally suited to the short form of the game so this season we will be looking to do better than we have over the last couple of years and win through to the latter stages of the competition.

Hopefully we will reach the finals that for the first time ever are being held at The Rose Bowl, which will be a spectacular venue for such an occasion.

Those of us who helped to win the Twenty20 Cup in 2005 will never forget that special day at the Brit Oval when we beat Leicestershire and then Lancashire in the final.

Twenty20 is such a fast and aggressive form of cricket that you have to be prepared to take risks and not be afraid of going for your shots, very much like Cameron White and Justin Langer did when they helped to set the record score of 250 for three against Gloucestershire back in 2006.

At the County Ground we always get big crowds who get right behind us so we will be looking for them to cheer us on and get our campaign off to a flying start by winning our first two home games against Northants on Wednesday and Warwickshire on Saturday.