WE expect another stern examination at New Road in our current LV= County Championship Division One match against Durham.

Everyone was disappointed to lose six wickets for 22 runs in the defeat to New Zealand in our last home match and our batting will be put under pressure by Durham.

They have Chris Rushworth, former England player Graham Onions and John Hastings in their ranks, so are a strong bowling outfit and it will be hard work for our batters.

From a position of strength against New Zealand, we ended up losing by 15 runs.

We should have won the game and it’s something we are working hard to address because it’s not the first time our batting has crumbled under a bit of pressure.

There were some shots played down the order that were disappointing.

Cricket is a results business and we have to be better at building partnerships under pressure. We had a frank discussion the day after we lost to New Zealand and good points were made.

The players need to back things up by putting in performances out in the middle.

We had previously competed pretty well against a strong New Zealand side.

It was desperately disappointing to see rain wash out the first day but we worked with our strength and conditioning coach Ross Dewar.

When New Zealand batted, we tried not to give too much work to Charlie Morris, Jack Shantry and Joe Leach.

Ed Barnard bowled pretty well as did Ross Whiteley and Chris Russell, who picked up a minor ankle injury.

There was a bit of moisture and the ball did nibble about as Hamish Rutherford made 75 in New Zealand’s first innings of 261-9 declared.

Whiteley was outstanding in reply, hitting 103 not out as we declared on 291-7.

We know what an extremely capable player Ross is and I was delighted to see him get to three figures.

We then saw Martin Guptill seal his place in the Test squad with 150 in New Zealand’s second innings of 275-9 declared. He’s quick on short-pitched bowling and I couldn’t help but admire his batting from slip.

The game was set up nicely by three declarations, so Richard Oliver and I decided we would be expansive in our second innings. Moeen Ali did not bat as he was meeting up with the England squad, so he had a deserved day off with his family.

I was pleased to make 44 from 53 balls in contrast to 22 in the first innings. Rich made 47, Tom Kohler-Cadmore 55 and Alex Gidman was in good touch for his 31.

In fact, all of our top five got starts but none of us could kill the game.