THE STEVE RHODES COLUMN

THE wicket at Bristol for our Liverpool Victoria County Championship game with Gloucestershire was definitely the flattest I have seen in over 20 years playing there.

Normally it offers a bit of seam and turn, but there was nothing in it for the bowlers.

We won the toss and batted well to post a huge first innings score.

Vikram Solanki played very straight and showed great concentration, which is something he has been criticised for lacking in the past. He thoroughly deserved his double hundred, which was a career-best score for him.

Steven Davies was also excellent -- he took time to play himself in and left about 30 balls alone before tea to make sure he had got himself in properly.

After that, he went on to score 192 which was a just reward for his hard work.

When he was set, he really opened his shoulders and played a few shots.

It was a tremendous innings from him and he will certainly have learnt a lot -- he showed just what a quality player he is.

Before the season started, I was very confident that, given a full year batting at number six, Davo could score a thousand runs and I still think that will happen.

If your number six batsman can weigh in with a thousand runs, the team will often get some big scores.

Bowling was hard work on the pitch at Bristol, but it was an excellent effort from Kabir Ali to get five wickets in their first innings.

It was a difficult track to bowl on but both Kabir and Zaheer Khan kept running in hard and they kept going. On this occasion, it was Kabir who got the wickets and he certainly deserved them.

In the Cheltenham and Gloucester Trophy game against Derbyshire, we were happy with the way we were going and Graeme Hick had invested a lot of time in making sure he was set for a dash in the last three overs.

Unfortunately it rained and we lost out on the last few overs.

Although the Duckworth-Lewis system is the fairest way to deal with rain interruptions, it does make it easier for the side batting second.

That said, it was still a game effort by Derby to achieve the total and Michael Di Venuto played a majestic innings.

He is a little bit inconsistent, but he can be a real match-winner on his day and the result goes down to the way he batted.

There was a costly over from Kabir when he went for 23 runs, but any bowler can suffer that fate.

The spinners got us back into the game but we just needed another breakthrough when Chris Taylor came in. It was frustrating to lose, but we certainly didn't play badly.

We have not got a game at New Road now until June 21 when we take on Northamptonshire in the County Championship, but we don't mind that.

Being on the road is all part of the job as a professional cricketer and we are used to it -- if anything, the away trips really help to build the team morale and spirit as the players spend more time together.

It strengthens the camaraderie among the team.