We're up and running

Its nice to have got our Twenty20 campaign up and running at last, but I guess it would have been nicer if we hadn’t lost our first three games because it is going to be quite difficult for us to qualify from here.

However given the team that we have and the way that we have played in our last few matches we all know that we can still do it. It is possible and as long as we keep hanging on in there and picking up the two points from each game then you never know.

I think we got to the stage where we had nothing to lose and went out there and played with no fear. We put in a performance and got the result that we needed against Glamorgan.

Previously we have lost wickets in clumps so we wanted to focus on the middle order and up at Worcester, Pete Trego and myself batted for about 10 overs and put some runs on the board which enabled us to reach a good total.

It was really important that we realised that even though we have lost a couple of wickets early on there were still a lot of wickets left so we had time to get runs.

Pete is on a bit of a roll at the moment and he is striking the ball well. One thing that he does do is back himself, so he needs to go out there and play exactly the way that he has been whether it is bowling or batting. He is showing that even when he plays just as a batsman, like he is now because of his injury that goes up the batting order because he is scoring runs for us.

It has been good for me to run into a bit of form in the Twenty20 now. Early on it wasn’t happening for me but I think if you can get stuck in and play your favourite shots, the ones that are risk free then things happen naturally.

Batting first and putting scores on the board creates a lot of pressure when we bowl at our opponents.

We know that here at Taunton where there is a good wicket that if you can put 180 on the board, chasing nine an over right from the start is a big ask and creates pressure for the side batting second right from the beginning.

With Charl Willoughby coming back into the team we have got a left armer who swings it and he has proved to be mighty effective and exactly what we have needed.

Alfonso Thomas has also responded magnificently to being asked to bowl for the last four overs from one end. He bowls his Yorkers so well that with eight overs to go he is the perfect bowler to bring on. He has got a field that he knows and he asked the captain if he could set his own field which has worked out superbly.

Now we have got three big games and we have to win them all. It is now all in our hands and we have to keep playing positively in exactly the way that we have been playing. We can’t leave it to chance and have to go out and take maximum points from the next three games.
It will be a huge disappointment if we don’t qualify and we will be kicking ourselves so if in the end that is the case we will be looking to rectify things in the Pro40.