Somerset's one-day cricket has improved a lot this year and it would be lovely if we could round the season off with some silverware by winning the Pro40 competition.

It's tight at the top and there look to be four sides, Sussex, Worcestershire, ourselves and Hampshire, in with a chance of taking the title.

We're unbeaten in four games so far and it's important we keep up the pressure on the others by defeating Essex in Tuesday's day-night match at Taunton.

I think we'll probably need to win seven of our eight games if we are to win the competition and, after the Essex game, we've got a couple of really important ones to follow against Worcestershire and Hampshire.

We set about improving our one-day cricket this year because, to be honest, it's been fairly poor the last couple of seasons.

We did well in the Friends Provident Trophy and, of course, we also did well in getting through to the final of the Twenty20 Cup.

I enjoy 40-over cricket and am pleased that it is being retained next season. I find 20-over matches a bit short and 50-over ones a bit long. The 40-over games are good to watch with no long periods in them when little is going on.

I think Somerset have a squad that is well-equipped for all one-day cricket, although we still need to find another bowler who can consistently deliver the goods in the closing overs. Alfonso Thomas is a quality 'death' bowler and the other guys are working hard on bowling at that stage of the innings.

Sussex, for instance, have two guys in James Kirtley and Yasir Arafat who you know are going to make it hard work for you towards the end of the innings. Big games are often won in that period and I'm sure at least one of our four remaining Pro40 matches will go down to the wire.

Of course, we haven't ruled ourselves out of the hunt for the County Championship title yet, but Durham are clearly in a strong position to win it again.

We need to keep believing and if we can manage to turn round our game against Durham, after being bowled out for 174 on Tuesday, then that will keep us in contention.

I thought last week's draw with Hampshire at the Rose Bowl was a big result for us. The odds were stacked against us after we lost the toss and had to bat second on a dry wicket and against a side which contained a very good leg-spinner in Imran Tahir.

Obviously, we were fairly pleased when bad light ended the match early after Hampshire had been set a run chase of 140 in 17 overs. But it was tough wicket to bat on and I feel we might well have restricted them if the light hadn't deteoriated and brought an early finish.

There were a couple of key partnerships in our first innings which went a long way towards saving the game for us. The first one was between myself and Craig Kieswetter and the other one was between Max Waller and Omari Banks, who batted superbly to take us close to avoiding the follow-on.

In international cricket, the NatWest Series starts at The Oval on Friday and I don't think there's going to be much between England and Australia.

England's 50-over cricket has been a bit up and down in recent years, but we're usually very competitive in our own country.

The side has chopped and changed a lot and some of the players who have been in the side have not really done the job consistently.

Joe Denly and Eoin Morgan are two who have been given a chance and, hopefully, they'll grab it. But I still think they've got a lot to prove. They've done okay in county cricket, but they haven't really produced the kind of performances that get people saying 'this bloke has got to play for England'.

Dimitri Mascarenhas always seems to be in and out the squad and is probably a bit unlucky to miss out this time.

I also think the selectors have missed a trick in not adding Jonathan Trott, pictured left, to the 15-man squad, which was named before Trott did so well in the last Ashes Test at The Oval.

I would have thought this was an ideal opportunity to draft in someone who has shown that he can do it under pressure – and the pressure doesn't come more intense than he experienced at The Oval.

He has a great record in domestic Twenty20 and 50-over cricket and I would have thought this would have been a good chance to fast-track him into the team.

Of the bowlers in the squad, it's good to see Adil Rashid in there. He's a cricketer I like a lot and we all want him to come through quickly and be the next Shane Warne. Again, I think he's still got a bit to prove. But if he can produce a few stand-out performances, I'm sure he will go on and become a Test player before too long.