THE pitch at the Rose Bowl for our Friends Provident t20 match against Hampshire was the worst I have played on in 18 years as a professional cricketer.

It immediately became the subject of an ECB inquiry and Hampshire have now been docked two points for next season's competition as a result, which doesn't surprise me.

Somerset coach Andy Hurry and I were interviewed about it on Tuesday as part of the investigation.

We were asked around a dozen questions, which amounted to something similar to the match report you give to the umpires, assessing the seam movement, spin and bounce of the pitch you have just played on.

There is no doubt in my mind that the wicket was dangerous. The appearance of it was like crazy paving, and that sort of pitch can play OK as long as it is hard. But when I tapped my bat on this one I could feel that the surface was loose.

My initial feeling was that the ball was sure to seam around off the cracks. A bigger problem was that the areas between them were moving around on impact. I didn't realise until I watched a recording of the game on TV that the pitch actually got worse as the match progressed.

There was one delivery from Peter Trego that reared off a length and hit Sean Ervine on the grille of his helmet that made my heart leap.

Pete has no great pace and what a bowler with the height of someone like Chris Tremlett would have done on the same wicket doesn't bear thinking about. We had Mark Turner in our team who is quick, but quite skiddy. A bowler with height and pace would have been lethal.

It wasn't only that a ball would steeple off a good length. The next one was just as likely to shoot along the ground, as Hampshire opener Michael Lumb found when he was bowled.

If there is just excessive bounce, as a batsman you can develop a plan to counter it. But when the odd ball is keeping low as well there isn't much you can do.

The pitch had been re-laid and I'm surprised Hampshire opted to play a televised Twenty20 game on it, having never used it before.

When we played an LV= County Championship match at the same venue earlier this season the wicket was, if anything, too flat, which made this one even more of a surprise.

The only good thing about a surface which ensures low scores is that it often produces an exciting game. Our amazing victory last Friday when our opponents appeared to have the game won was a case in point.

After the delivery from Trego, which hit Ervine in the face, the umpires consulted to talk about whether the game should continue.

It says everything about our position at the time that I was ready to walk off and settle for one point each. But suddenly we got Jimmy Adams out, and from Hampshire being 93-4 chasing 105 to win, the whole complex of the game changed.

We had our two best bowlers, in Alfonso Thomas and Kieron Pollard, sending down the last four overs, and their batting simply caved in.

It was an emotional Somerset dressing room after the game, almost as though we had won a big cup final. The lads were really buzzing, having won a TV game so dramatically.

I think that was the main reason for a pretty flat performance against Surrey at Taunton the next day. We had been on such a high the night before that we just couldn't raise ourselves again such a short time later.

Our coach had broken down not far from the Rose Bowl, so we had been forced to check back into our hotel on the Friday night, but I wouldn't use that as an excuse for the defeat by Surrey. The amount of effort we put into beating Hampshire and the emotion involved had a far greater effect upon us in my view.

Pollard produced some more explosive hitting to follow his amazing debut for us against Middlesex at Lord's. But, while everyone is talking about his batting, I can't stress too much what a difference he is making to our bowling attack.

I know I wouldn't like to face him in the closing overs of a Twenty20 game. He is not quick, but he hits a horrible length for a batsman and his height makes him very difficult to hit.

With such a class act as Alfonso at the other end, the last four overs of the innings are actually ones I don't have to think about as a captain, which is great.

This column was written before our game against Essex Eagles at Taunton last night, but I have to admit that we could easily have lost our first four games in the Friends Provident t20.

We pulled two of them out of the fire, with Kieron's heroics at Lord's and the incredible turnaround at the Rose Bowl, and our batting didn't fire as a unit in any of the matches.

My own form has been a concern and we lost early wickets in all four fixtures. That's something we are fully aware of and the best that can be said is that we went into the Essex game in a reasonable position, despite not having played as we can.