SO close but yet so far. I mentioned two weeks ago that I hoped this column would be about our preparations for Twenty20 finals day at the Rose Bowl on Saturday but it wasn’t to be.

We got our chance for a spot in the last four after Yorkshire were thrown out of the competition for fielding an ineligible player. As players we felt we should get the chance to play Durham but we never expected it to happen.

I was actually driving home after a tough day’s play against Essex when my brother phoned.

I assumed it was the usual “Can I borrow some money Dave?”, but he told me that we had won our appeal.

All of a sudden it went mad. The boys were phoning round asking where and when we were playing.

It was decided we would travel to Durham by executive coach on Monday. We had never used a coach before and everyone seemed excited by the whole occasion.

We boarded at 10am with an expected journey time of nearly seven hours. I nestled in next to Mark Wallace and Jason Gillespie with my tabloid newspaper for the long trip ahead.

By the time we got to the Severn I was bored and asking how long we had left!

Time was spent playing cards and watching Max and Paddy on the Plasma TVs. As we drew closer to our team hotel the mood slightly changed and we started to focus on the game and how we could spring a surprise.

We realised that Durham had a team of international players including Paul Collingwood, Steve Harmison and Shivnarine Chanderpaul but people were saying that they fancied us to win due to the circumstances in which we got through. After some of the lads had a round of golf at the hotel we had a team meeting. It was short but the message was very clear.

All the pressure was on Durham and they were expected to wipe the floor with us. But we would not lie down and would give everything to cause an upset.

We had a good start with the ball with James Harris picking up early wickets. We knew spinners Robert Croft and Dean Cosker could keep things tight in the middle overs.

Things seemed to be going perfectly but we knew that Durham had such strength in depth. They proved this by batting really well at the end of the innings with Shaun Pollock and Liam Plunkett coming in at seven and nine.

We knew we would have to bat well against the accuracy and pace of Harmison, Plunkett and Pollock but they proved to be too strong.

I feel we can be proud of our efforts and had them on the rack at times during the game. There seemed to be a sense of relief in their camp and they knew that they had been in a game.

It just made the seven-hour trip back home seem longer, arriving back in Cardiff at 4am.

l I had felt that the game with Durham would be just what we needed after a tough week against Essex at home where we saw at first hand the destructive power of Graham Napier, who earlier this season blasted an unbeaten 152 in a Twenty20 match, as he hit Dean Cosker for three huge sixes.

The decision to put us back into the Twenty20 Cup seemed to give the whole team a lift going into the championship game with Worcestershire.

It was to be an interesting week as Simon Jones was to play his first four-day game for Worcester against his old team-mates.

It turned out to be a disappointing week for us again with Simon proving that he is back to near his best with the ball. It seems his move has revitalised his career and I am sure we will see him back in an England shirt this summer.

On a positive note for us our young all-rounder James Harris is improving with every game. He is only 18 but looks so composed on the cricket field and has a huge future ahead of him.

It’s that time of year now that players start to pick up niggles and injuries due to the hectic schedule of county cricket.

Having a small squad we are not in a position to be able to rotate players like other counties. Bowlers are usually the ones that pick up the niggles due to job they do. I suppose it’s an occupational hazard.

Shoulders, back and ankles are the main areas that get sore. It’s very common to see bowlers at the end of a day with ice packs on all three areas.

Some of these injuries can be due to our football in warm-ups! We play every morning and it’s a good way of getting the lads in the mood for a day’s play, although it can get a little competitive at times. With my slight resemblance to Bambi I seem to get a little clumsy with my tackling and have a gash down my right shin and a huge bruise on my left shin! l We are back on Sky tonight against a strong Surrey team as we open our Pro40 campaign. It is good opportunity for us with a new competition to focus on.

Surrey are a good team but if we can show the same desire and competitiveness that we did at Durham we can be successful.

It’s then the weekend off and I will be attending the marriage of my old mate James ‘Danno’ Rowles in Cardiff.

It’s a good chance to catch up with friends you don’t see in the summer. He is a good man and I wish him all the best in the future with his new family.