WELL, what a week!

I don't think we could have made a better start to the season.

We played some amazing cricket - some of the best since I've been at the club - considering that we're such a young side.

We knew the four-day game against Northants was going to be a massive fixture in the context of the season because we felt we were a much stronger side than them and it was a must-win game.

So, to get the result when we were constantly battling against the weather over the last two days was a real boost for the guys.

I think it was a deserved result in the end because I felt we won 10 of the 11 sessions we played in the match.

We try to break the game down into smaller sessions and we felt we played really good cricket over the whole four days.

Bowling-wise, it was a huge boost to have Andre Nel come in and the seam attack as a whole did fantastically well.

And with the batting, we did what you have to do in four-day cricket which is get a big score in the first innings. It's important to get your batting points and also to put the other side under pressure.

Luckily, we got far enough ahead to enable me to set attacking fields for longer and we were able to take the wickets we needed in time.

The games have been reduced to 96 overs-a-day this year, which I think is a good thing because it pushes things along.

On the third day we finished at tea-time because of the rain, so the game could have been over earlier if the weather hadn't played a part, but in the end it was getting a bit gloomy when we hit the winning runs.

It was a close thing in the end, but thankfully everything worked out okay.

Personally, it was nice to come in at number five as the bowlers were obviously a bit tired and the wicket was flatter.

I just took real personal satisfaction in scoring 80 not out in quick time and getting a bit of practice ahead of opening on Sunday.

We had set ourselves a target of getting 220 ahead, so I was always going to declare at 500 even if it meant denying myself a hundred.

On to Sunday and we can't under-estimate just how big a win our Friends Provident Trophy victory over Kent was.

I said last week that I thought they'd be one of the top one-day sides and they beat us three times out of three last season.

They're an extremely good one-day side, so to beat them so convincingly was fantastic.

To do that in our first one-day game of the year shows how far we've come over the winter.

Ravi batted beautifully and our partnership made a big difference. It's just a shame he was out for 99!

Personally, it was very special to score a hundred and was a great day all in all - apart from poor Jason Gallian being run out by his opening partner...!