HAMPSHIRE had a really exciting game at Gloucestershire in the One-Day Cup on Tuesday night, which unfortunately, we ended up losing by 10 runs.

We did OK in the end but we have come up short again and that’s been the story of one-day cricket so far for us. We have been poor, to be completely honest, and we can’t keep saying it.

We keep losing games of cricket and we are in a results-driven business. We have to win games so to fall 10 runs short; people can say it’s a good effort, but we have got beat again and it’s not good enough.

On a personal note, I took two wickets and scored 57, so I thought I did pretty well again. I have had a decent start in all one-day cricket, so that is pleasing and hopefully I can keep doing that.

There were almost 700 runs scored in that game and last week, in a match between Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire, there were nearly 800.

Cricket has moved on massively. Players are getting better, batsmen are getting better and we are playing on fairly small boundaries, as the crowds want to see runs.

That’s what you want in one-day cricket. You want to play on good pitches, you want to play on small boundaries and you want it to be exciting.

I think the 50-over competition has shown that and it’s good for the crowd and good for the players as well.

We were due to play Surrey at home in the same competition on Wednesday and that was set up to be a massive game for us.

If you win four or five games out of your eight, you should qualify for the knockout stages. We’ve won one and lost two, so if we won against Surrey that would have put us back in the mix for qualification.

You can’t afford to play catch-up at all in this competition and it’s a strong group as well, so you don’t want to fall behind.

I came back to Wiltshire at the weekend and played for Goatacre, which is something I always enjoy doing.

It’s the club I have always been at, so it’s nice to go back. They are all my mates that I’ve grown up with.

Obviously, England were playing in the Euros as well, so it was a good excuse to come back and have a couple of drinks and watch the football as well.

The cricket is a bonus for me but seeing everyone and having a few drinks is relaxing and good fun.