AS the match went on at Edgbaston last week, the more it became a joke.

I may not have been playing against Warwickshire but having been there every day you could see just how bad that wicket was.

The number of hits to the gloves and body was extremely high and Warwickshire were quite rightly docked points.

But I am surprised to hear that they have launched an appeal on the penalty due to a technicality.

While eight points was about right, what would have happened if the Bears’ England batsmen Ian Bell or Jonathan Trott had broken a digit or two?

The pitch was rated as poor by an ECB pitch panel, but in my view it was dangerous.

I suppose it was a little bit of a surprise that only Vikram Solanki had to visit hospital from that match.

Vik is OK now after being hit on the head and the ball which got him probably didn’t misbehave that much, it was just the uncertainty of what the wicket was going to do.

When you have that lack of trust in a wicket it is difficult to feel comfortable.

But Mohammad Yousaf’s knock in both innings was genius. The way he played was unbelievable and was the difference between the two teams.

Moeen Ali didn’t have the easiest game for his first one as captain, but he did exceptionally well in extreme circumstances.

It was the right thing to do to bring the match to an end when he did. Vik wasn’t going to bat again, Ben Scott (inset) was in quite a lot of pain after three or four blows to gloves in quick succession and Alan Richardson was carrying a few niggles.

The lads are off to Lord’s today for our Clydesdale Bank 40 match with Middlesex and I’m gutted that I’m not playing.

You always want to play at Lord’s, it is one of those special places to play cricket and our new signing Adrian Shankar could make his debut there.

Unfortunately, the MRI scan last week on my side-strain didn’t have a great outcome. It showed that there was a double tear and the muscle had slightly come away from the bone.

But at least we now have a timescale for a recovery and, while I’m likely to be out for around a month, I am hoping to be running by the end of this week.

It is going to be a gradual rehabilitation programme and, you never know, I may be back for the LV= County Championship Division One match against Nottinghamshire at the end of the month.

A few of the lads joined Twitter last week and it was a great way for us to have a little bit of light-hearted banter during the long rain breaks.

It was a great way to keep the spirits up during what was a tough week at Edgbaston.