SAT here watching the rain at Edgbaston makes it all the more clear that our two-day defeat to Surrey last week was the worst possible result for Kent.

A good draw would have kept us 14 or so points clear of Surrey, but unfortunately it wasn't an easy batting surface and although the game might have gone either way, we never really got on top of them at any stage.

Now we have to be massively focussed for every four-day game from here on in.

The guys have spoken about it long and hard, so hopefully we can put in some good cricket from here on in and whenever we’ve been under pressure this season we’ve responded well.

What we were after for Cricket Week was a really good cricket wicket with some pace onto that bat, but with little or no turn. The key was to neutralise Surrey's spinners and Harbhajan Singh in particular, but that clearly didn't work.

My assessment of the pitch was that it aided seam and spin and made batting very difficult. Why we never got the pitch we wanted I don't know, but needless to say I'm disappointed and so are the players.

Despite the Surrey result, the boys bounced back again to play one heck of a game against Durham, who do look a top one-day outfit this year.

The lads were quietly determined to put in a good performance and continue building on our improvement in one-day skills.

What's most pleasing is the strength of self-belief in the side now even when things appear pretty tough.

We surprised Durham in the way we kept fighting and it made for an exciting finish for another good home crowd.