England have to find another destructive batsman in the Kevin Pietersen mould to become a genuine force at Twenty20 Cricket.

That was the main message I took from our disappointing World Cup exit at the Super Eights stage. I really thought we would beat West Indies in the win-or-bust game at The Oval, but although things didn't go for us on the night, in the final analysis we came up short.

There is too much reliance on Pietersen. Ravi Bopara had a decent tournament, but we need another dominating player in our top five and the only name that comes to my mind is Andrew Flintoff.

Someone new has to emerge, whether it is one of the current squad working hard to raise his game or a player from county cricket producing the performances to force his way into a key position.

If you look at the West Indies, they have Chris Gayle at the top of the order, Dwayne Bravo, who can win games on his own with bat or ball, and experienced players like Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul in the middle order.

That depth of quality is what saw them through against England, even though they lost wickets in the nine-over run chase. To be five down and still have Sarwan and Chanderpaul to see them home illustrated a major difference between the sides.

I had no great problem with England's team selection. While I was a bit surprised to see Dimitri Mascarenhas left out, I have talked before about the increasing role spinners are playing in Twenty20, so the decision to play Adil Rashid was a sound enough one.

It did leave us without a recognised big hitter down the order and I thought Stuart Broad could have come in higher up because he can strike a heavy ball.

Paul Collingwood's decision to bat first after winning the toss was also a bit strange because it is standard practice in county cricket to bowl if there is rain around and the Duckworth-Lewis system is likely to come into play.

I assume the fact that West Indies would have to bat under lights influenced the thinking. The ball can do a bit more for the bowlers in that situation when it's damp, but you need to be pretty sure the match is going to run its full course.

Overall, I think England improved a bit throughout the competition. I was pleased to see James Foster grab his chance and show the value of a quality wicketkeeper in the 20-over format.

But we still have a way to go to match the likes of South Africa and Sri Lanka, who both have such variety to their bowling, as well as some dominating batsmen.

The Sri Lankan seamers have bowled some amazing slower balls and, like South Africa, they have class spinners. I'll stick with my prediction that Graeme Smith's team will end up lifting the trophy, although West Indies are starting to worry me because their natural flamboyance is perfectly suited to Twenty20.

On the Somerset front, I'm delighted to be able to report on our first County Championship win of the season against Yorkshire at Headingley.

We were behind the eight ball when conceding a 47-run lead on first innings, which I thought might be crucial on the type of pitch that was being used.

Surprisingly, it didn't deteriorate as I had feared and we managed to dig in and turn the match around in the second innings. To score 296 to win was a tough ask, but I was able to get some runs and both Justin Langer and Zander de Bruyn played well.

It's impossible to stress too much the importance of that victory. Had we lost the game, we would have been second from bottom in the table with more ground to make up.

As it was, we headed for Sussex – the third of our trio of difficult away games in succession – in great heart, knowing we could overtake them and make further progress towards the top three with another good performance.

It looked like we were going to get it when Arul Suppiah and myself put on 138 for our first wicket after we had won the toss.

But then a young newcomer called Piyush Chawla turned the game on its head, as leg-spinners are often capable of doing.

Chawla, from India, who has signed up with Sussex until the end of the month as a replacement for Pakistan's Yasir Arafat, made an instant impact in their previous Championship game against Worcestershire. He took five wickets against us to help transform our score to 240-7.

I didn't help matters by running myself out, having reached a century, and to close on 314-9 was disappointing in the circumstances. We should have been looking to bat out the day with only five or six down.

Chawla's googly is his main delivery and gets him lbws and bat-pad catches. He is very consistent and doesn't give you many bad balls to hit. With a bat-pad fielder on both sides of the wicket, he is always asking questions and is a name to look out for.

We have our own leg-spinner making his Championship debut in Max Waller and I have high hopes for him. I love his character and the way he goes about his business.

Michael Munday turned the ball a lot in our match at Headingley, but he lacks the consistency I referred to with Chawla. We need to show faith in him and give him all the help we can behind the scenes because he is still young and, if he gets it right, he will be a real handful for any batsman.

INTERVIEW: RICHARD LATHAM