HAVING a slow over-rate up at Durham in the County Championship meant that we were unable to take risks which could have seen a very different outcome.

When we went into the field for the second time at the Riverside our over-rate was minus three and that meant we couldn’t deploy our plans the way we wanted too.

There is a fine balance. Do you try and go all out in the hope you win? Or do you concentrate on getting those overs back so you don’t lose any points?

If you go all out and lose, then you risk losing some points that you have got from the first innings.

That may sound negative, but we are not in a position to go throwing away points.

Being captain last week, I know just how hard it is for Vikram Solanki to try and ensure that we are up with the rate in every match.

The wicket at Durham was one for the bowlers — Kabir Ali got six wickets and Matt Mason also bowled beautifully. But, in the second innings, I had to be aware of making sure that we got back the overs and that meant I was bowling for long spells.

As a bowler that can be very frustrating, you don’t want to be bowling just to make up the overs.

There are a number of reasons why you can be behind the rate, such as the batsman being a long way from his crease while you are waiting to bowl, long run-ups, bowling seamers all day and going around the field too slowly.

The match at Durham was pleasing in some respects, but disappointing in others — the result for starters.

However, given the side that we took, we competed well for the first two days.

It was just disappointing that we were light of runs in the second innings, which made it difficult when they batted.

There are things that we can take into our match at Lancashire on Friday as well as the added boost of having Vik, Steve Davies and Stephen Moore back after they played for the Lions last week.

We didn’t get to see much of the Lions’ game against Australia but we did manage to see Moorey get his three-figures.

The way that he handled Brett Lee was superb — there was a bowler who was firing and bowling extremely quick and getting the ball to swing both ways.

Being a professional cricketer, you can tell if someone is bowling as quickly as they say on the television and, at New Road, Lee was certainly as quick as the 95mph they were saying.

Moorey’s innings will undoubtedly stake him a claim for being in that England side.

I know from experience that a call can come from nowhere, so it wouldn’t come as a huge surprise if he did get that call.