DARYL Mitchell has been one of the stand-out performers this season and hopefully he can get the 99 runs needed to make 1,000.

This has been Mitch’s first full campaign and he has been remarkable.

He opens the batting in the County Championship and comes in at six for the one-day side. To adapt his game the way he has is superb.

Stephen Moore, Kabir Ali and Simon Jones have been brilliant but you sort of expect that from them, so Daryl’s is a fine achievement.

The game tomorrow against Middlesex is a big one and, after last week in Cardiff, this could be the difference between us going up as champions or just being promoted.

There were times in Cardiff where we could have played for an hour or two and that may have seen us get one or two bonus points.

We need to make sure we beat Middlesex so Warwickshire must win to try and overtake us at the top.

Last week in Cardiff was one of the most frustrating of the season. You try and keep yourself busy and, for the first couple of days, we were in the indoor school working on things that needed to be done.

But days three and four were mind-numbing. There are only so many times you can read the newspapers and play stupid practical jokes and games of five-a-side football.

The ground is staging an Ashes Test next summer yet they did not have the infrastructure to complete a four-day county game.

They are putting in a new drainage system over the winter but for them to be staging the biggest series in cricket bar none without having tried and tested the new drains seems very strange.

It will be a shame if the first Ashes Test is affected because things aren’t quite right.

Now, after the NatWest Pro40 Division One defeat to Middlesex Crusaders, we are back in Cardiff on Sunday.

Let’s hope we finally manage to get some cricket in because even our Twenty20 Cup match there was washed out too. Sunday’s game against Middlesex was strange as I never felt we were going to lose.

We all know Kidderminster is a ground where a lot of runs are scored and, recently in this competition, it has not been unusual for sides to go at five, six, seven or eight an over.

Ben Smith played one of the best knocks I have seen him play for Worcestershire.

It was an innings that has been coming. Benny has been playing the best cricket of his life recently and to come in at number four in a 40-over match and score a century, his first in this competition for 13 years, is fantastic.

I’d like to pay tribute to the Middlesex players for what they did for Graeme Hick on Sunday — it was a nice touch giving him a guard of honour and for the fans to give him the standing ovation he received was brilliant.

I’m sure this is going to be an emotional week for Hicky.

Hopefully, we can send him off in the way he deserves — by winning Division Two.