Not the day I was hoping for

Not the day I was hoping for is an understatement.

I sat down to write this a little earlier but wasn't really in a good mood and what I was typing was a little bit angry, I was having a bit of a moan about a few things, not related to today's play either. But I'll leave all that because I'm feeling better now; best not to blog angry, huh!?

Today didn't go to plan, I think it's fair to say. It started off pretty well, Tommy (Martin -> Marto > Tom Marto ... get it??) picked up Sharma, first ball of the third over of the day. We're off the park, boots off and feet up.

I spent the day switching between the changing room and the viewing area trying to change the luck of the guys out there. Don't move seats if someone is in, don't talk about how good someone is playing; these things can jinx or curse an innings. So I was up and about trying to find a place where the luck was good.

Khan bowled really well today, he seemed to have it on a string and even the bad balls ended up as good ones. I've bowled my share of short wide ones and they've ended up at the boundary, not wicket taking deliveries, it was with him today.

I was padding up just before tea, I was hoping to be tucking into a big feed as a part of a recovery day. Soon after tea I was in, Khan still bowling well and Singh drifting it and spinning it a little from the other. It was Baz [McCullum] and I again, hopeful of another partnership with him that would bring a little respectability to our score. We were going pretty well together, the pitch was playing pretty flat and I was feeling ok. I got a couple of very good bouncers early, the first one didn't miss by much, just pulling my head out of the way right at the last second. After those couple I was feeling better about picking up the ball and getting under the short ones. If I can get under a couple of bouncers early I start to feel a lot better about batting, it means I'm watching the ball and am picking it up early. When I fend and swing at early bouncers it means I am having issues seeing the ball and I may not last to long.

I hit my new top score today, 19. Nothing special, but still it's a personal best and I'm pretty happy about it. I should have and could have scored more too. I nicked one that I had been hitting well in defence trying to look for a single. I was disappointed to get out in that way on that track and it now meant that we had to go back out and bowl, that I was more disappointed about.

It hadn't been a warm day and it certainly wasn't warm heading back out to bowl now. The shadows were long, the wind was cold and most of us were pretty tired but we went out there to give it everything.

I got to do my usual role of bowling into the wind, it was quite a good breeze but tomorrow is set to be stronger again. I got through four overs pretty good and then got a crack down wind. I had been looking forward to this and was going to go real hard and crank as much out of my body as I could. I hit some pretty good speeds and I am looking forward to a good run down it tomorrow, although, my main role will be from the up wind end, where I'll have to work hard getting to the crease and concentrate harder as the wind can blow you off course at the top of the jump. It's more about muscling it there rather than using rhythm to get the ball down the other end.

Let’s hope for a good day tomorrow and that we can scythe through the most prolific run-scoring team there is.