After the week that was I can't tell you what a relief it is for myself and the rest of my Yorkshire team-mates to pitch ourselves back into the County Championship arena.
Today we resumed our Championship campaign against Leicestershire at Headingley and we were all itching to ensure we stay out in prime position as we have been this past month or so.
Winning the county crown is well documented as being one of the driving forces in our motivation this season. But just as important is the need to get back on the winning track after the events of the past five days that have turned the early part of our season on its head.
Our exit from the Benson and Hedges Cup semi-final against Gloucestershire was 'totally unacceptable', while we hardly covered ourselves in glory just two days later when we eventually negotiated Bedfordshire in the first round of the newly-named Cheltenham and Gloucester Cup.
Yet the week could not have started better for myself and the team.
After nets on Saturday I earned my first-team recall in the Sunday Norwich Union League game against Northamptonshire.
And even if I say it myself I did
rather well. It was good to get back into the swing of things again and it was even better to be part of an attack which bowled superbly.
Yet less than 24 hours later and our emotions were right at the other extreme after we were bundled out of the B&H Cup by Gloucestershire in the semi-final
in front of our own long-suffering fans.
I can only say now 'we're sorry' to the supporters and hope that it won't happen again. The performance was totally unacceptable.
Even though none of us bowled particularly well when they had posted a score of around 240 I felt it was gettable. It was a flat track and a good batting wicket. But we kept losing wickets at regular intervals and the worst thing was we only faced 32 overs out of our allotted 50. It's just not good enough with the quality of players in our side.
The dismissal of Darren Lehmann was obviously a key point and when I looked at it I just did not know whether to laugh or cry to be honest. Obviously he thought he was in his ground, but the replays showed he wasn't.
You also have to give a lot of credit to Gloucestershire. They are not a team of stars, but they have a game plan, they stick to it rigidly and it works for them.
That's why I feel they are one of the best one-day sides in the game. It's something we have got to adapt ourselves to if we are to make even more progress.
After the match I just came off feeling we had let ourselves down and the supporters down as well.
Two days later we were back in cup action down at Luton gainst
Bedfordshire. We did not do ourselves justice again and though eventually we won, it was a match like the one at Gloucestershire which we would all rather like to forget.
I think the Gloucestershire defeat had affected us. I don't think we bowled particularly well at all.
But thankfully for us Darren came good. Even though he was disappointed to get out the way he did on 88 it was a superb innings. It showed again just how important he is to us. He just churns out the runs.
To get those two cup performances out of our legs we were in yesterday and we had some nets and a bit of a kick-about. But the most important thing was for
us to get our minds back on the match against Leicestershire today.
A win against them would really buck us up. This is our opportunity to make sure that the rest of the teams below have to keep playing catch-up. Then that will help to put to bed the memories of those cup performances.
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