We've just come to the end of our busiest week since arriving in London. Our games this week were up in Durham which is an long four hour drive from London, and that's if you get a good run with the traffic.

I must say though, that I prefer travelling to venues by car compared to the flying that we have to do back home. The amount of down time cricketers would spend in airports is massive, at least you can control your trip a little better by road.

In saying this Durham did test the patience levels especially when you have to travel back straight after the game. The mood wasn't helped in the car by the fact we were beaten in the last over in a game we should have won. It was a 45-over game that was played straight after a CricInfo Championship four-day match which was drawn.

We batted first in the one-dayer stuttering to 181, a competitive score on a worn wicket. It turned out to be very competitive, and dare I say it, it would have been enough had it not been for a strange turn of events.

We grabbed the seventh and eighth wickets in successive balls, or so we thought.

Unfortunately, one of our boys stayed back on the boundary instead of being inside the circle. This was missed by all concerned, including the skipper who, for the first time in Middlesex colours, was me!

As we gathered to celebrate I heard the no-ball call and realised straight away what had occured.

I believe the square leg umpire had missed it, but the crowd picked it up and alerted him to the mistake.

Worse was to come - the ball had deflected off the stumps down to the boundary. The no-ball is worth two and the boundary four, so instead of a wicket we had just gifted them six runs with an extra ball to be bowled.

We lost with a ball to spare!

My championship form held firm again this week, posting my second 100 for the club. One of my goals is to redevelop this skill of scoring hundreds so I'm please with my progress.

On the international scene, England achieved a very impressive victory over Pakistan.

After losing the first day's play, they never took a backward step, finishing with a day to spare.

They played Pakistan in exactly the right conditions on a pitch that offered good bounce and a little bit of sideways movement, very similar to the wicket in Hamilton.

The question I still ask, is what on Earth were we doing playing on the wicket that we did in the first Test in Auckland? A portable pitch that had never been used before.

I'm a strong believer that you play to your strengths when you are at home. When you tour India you get wickets that turn, when you're in Australia and South Africa you get wickets that bounce. When you're in England or New Zealand you expect to get wickets that seam.

It's not doctoring wickets because you still want the best possible surface to play on. But each surface has its own characteristic.

The old Eden Park wickets weren't ideal but as home players we knew their nature and that always gave us an advantage.

I am in favour of portable pitches but they need more experimentation, but not at Test level. To advance as a Test side we need to play on more wickets like Hamilton and Dunedin.

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