I'VE written a lot in my column recently about us needing to bottom out our recent downward spiral so we could start to rise again.

I felt that, in our Friends Provident Trophy game against Yorkshire that was washed out, we had a decent total to defend on a used pitch with two good spinners.

Added to that, we were well on top against Lancashire - they were only 120 ahead with seven wickets down, but we lost a day-and-a-half to the weather there too.

We have started to play better cricket now and hopefully we can use Sunday's win against Derbyshire as the platform to build an upward curve.

I've said before you need to build batting and bowling partnerships if you want to win games and the partnership between Graeme Hick and Ben Smith was a top performance from both of them.

I challenged them to focus on that and they did so with a superb match-winning 131-run partnership.

At 70-3, if we'd lost another wicket, it could have been a very difficult chase.

Hicky has been in great form recently - he scored a hundred at Lancashire and his last three knocks in one-day games have been high quality too.

Part of the strategy with him batting at number five in the one-dayers is that he can get himself in and be around for the last five overs to open his shoulders and clear the ropes - I call it the tax-free zone - and that's what he has been doing in recent games.

Also, the opposition know they certainly haven't got through us while he is still at the crease.

Ben Smith has been a very consistent performer for us - he has had a couple of low scores, but that happens in cricket.

He got two very good half-centuries in the championship against Warwickshire and has missed out in a few games since then, but it has not been a long-term lack of form.

Both Ben and Hicky were always on top against Derbyshire and they batted very well together as there is always pressure on you when you are chasing a total.

Added to Sunday's win against Derby, we have got a couple of players hopefully coming back from injuries.

It has been hard work to bowl sides out without Doug Bollinger and Matt Mason, which has meant we have spent a long time in the field, which in turn has had an impact on our batting.

However, all of the bowlers, Kabir Ali in particular, have toiled manfully.

Doug is a strike bowler and it will be a big positive for us to have him back, while Matt is a very steady performer who never goes for too many.

So it will be happy days when we've got them back.

Hopefully, Doug will be back playing against Sussex on Thursday - he'll have a fitness test before the game and we'll take it from there.

Matt is a little bit further away, but we are hoping he can play for the second team in their game with Surrey at Kidderminster on May 30.

Our squad was possibly a bit light on players who were ready to slot into first-team cricket at the start of the season, but it has been tough to deal with injuries to two of our main bowlers.