Gale in amongst the runs

We are now three weeks into the season and things have gone well from a team point of view and a personal point of view.

After an excellent pre-season tour in Abu Dhabi I came back in good form and with the confidence I needed for a successful season.

I started the season off with 138 against Hampshire, I put the team in a great position on a tricky wicket and Matthew Hoggard bowled amazingly, showing that he is still worthy of Test cricket. We won the game by an innings. I was more than happy with my performance as the Hampshire bowling attack included Shane Bond, Chris Tremlett and Dimi Mascarenhas.

We have had a good start in the Friends Provident Trophy, we lost our first game against Durham but since then we have won two games on the bounce. We beat Durham on Bank Holiday Monday, in which I scored 68 at faster than a run a ball.

As a team we are growing in confidence game by game. Morne Morkel bowled the speed of light before he pulled up with a hamsrting strain, hopefully he will be fit again for our Roses clash on Sunday.

The key to our season is how well the younger lads perform, the likes of Chris Taylor, Joe Sayers, Tim Bresnan and myself. In recent years the likes of Anthony McGrath, Jaques Rudolth and Darren Gough have been left to produce match winning performances but I now feel the younger guys are finding their feet a bit and are starting to produce the performances we need to be a successful unit.

For me I have had a great start to the season but a couple of good performances doesn’t make a season, hopefully I can now kick on and continue to produce consistent performances and really cement my place in the side.

We are back on the road next week to play against Durham, Scotland, Surrey and Derbyshire but I will try and fill you all in on our ups and downs in a few weeks time.