WE KNEW that we had to win our game against Lancashire last week but we got beaten and that means that we’re not going to get promoted this season.

We salvaged a bit of pride by the way that we played on the fourth day, especially with the partnership that Colesey (Matt Coles) and Wheats (Adam Wheater) put together, but it was pretty much the story of our four-day season.

We’ve only taken 20 wickets once this season and that’s what we need to improve on to win games – it’s as simple as that.

If you’re going to win games of cricket, then you have to be taking those 20 wickets and hopefully we can try and find the missing part of the formula in the last few games before the end of the summer.

I think that we all know that we’re in need of a top quality bowler or two to help push us on too so it would be nice if we could make those kind of additions in the winter.

We’ve got a massive YB40 semi-final coming up on Saturday and if we win that, it will keep our season alive. If we don’t, then it’s going to be a long last few weeks with nothing to play for.

We’re playing at the Ageas Bowl and we know that we’ve got to be at our best to win on the day. We’ll be missing Michael Carberry, which is a big blow, but playing for England is his dream so good luck to him.

Glamorgan will be up for the challenge but we want to be in the Lord’s final.

I’ve been lucky enough to play there already but if we make it, the build-up will be exactly the same. The excitement the night before the game is amazing and there’s no way of knowing what that feels like until you’ve been there and done it.

It’s a special place to go and play and the pinnacle for any domestic cricketer so I hope that we can get there again.

In the meantime, we’ve got a four-day game at home to Northants to concentrate on this week.

Obviously, everyone will be hoping that they don’t pick up an injury but my main aim is to stay out in the middle for as long as possible and get some runs on the board.

We all want to be going in to the semi-final in the best form that we can.

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