IT’S nice to be out of the LV= County Championship Division One relegation zone after our draw at Middlesex.

However, we would have liked to pick up one or two more wins by now and it’s not as if we haven’t had the opportunities to do that.

We’ve got the one Championship victory so far but have the joint most batting and bowling bonus points in the division with 24 for each.

Our aim in the second half of the four-day campaign has to be to turn those promising positions and good starts from our first innings into wins.

We got ourselves into a pretty good position once again against Middlesex at Uxbridge.

There were plenty of positives and we played some fantastic cricket.

But, on a flat pitch that became slower as the game went on, it was difficult to prise out the wickets in Middlesex’s second innings.

We bowled well to restrict them to 309 initially and take full bowling bonus points before a good display with the bat gained a 76-run lead.

However, the wicket got slower as the match went on and outside edges were dropping short.

Both teams bowled extremely well despite that in my opinion.

We thought we might be able to get some joy with our spinners later on but they had left plenty of grass on the surface.

I believe eight out of the last nine games at Uxbridge have been draws.

Middlesex haven’t won a game there since 1991 and it’s their home ground.

You have to try and get in a position to force a victory and there were a couple of periods when we were in with a sniff.

We needed quick wickets in the first session of the last day and then we were in last-chance saloon but James Harris (59 not out) played well with James Franklin, who had a pretty good game with 135 and 91no.

It was a fantastic innings for us of 143 from Tom Fell, who kept their good bowlers out and scored freely when the opportunities arose.

It’s his second Championship hundred at the halfway stage of the season and hopefully he can continue in the same vein.

Tom’s really nailed down his place in the batting order while others haven’t done so.

What you see from the sidelines is how he is off the pitch.

He’s a laid-back character, calm and collected, and nothing seems to faze him.

Tom has improved by hitting more balls, working extremely hard and he has batted for long periods of time.

Though he was born in Middlesex, he moved this way when he was relatively young.

His family were there watching him and I think they saw him getting into three figures.

It’s been a bonus for us to get as much county cricket out of Moeen Ali, who has now left for England’s Ashes training camp, as we have.

We do want him to be playing for England and winning games for the country as it’s good for us all in the long run.

Moeen’s fantastic. He has such a work ethic and is a model professional for young, aspiring cricketers.

We now have five days in Nottinghamshire with a Championship game, starting today, and a NatWest T20 Blast match.

Trent Bridge is a tough place to go and they’re a strong team.

I feel their position at the bottom of the Championship is false with the quality they have in their squad so we have a big match ahead.