What a thrill it was for me to take the wicket of Shiv Chanderpaul against Lancashire. I had only said last week how important it was for us to get him early.

When Chanderpaul came in I said to the umpire (Tim Robinson) that I wanted this one in my pocket.

He smiled and made a little comment and then – bang – the next ball he’d gone. I had the biggest grin. It really was an unreal situation.

To me he is still one of the best batters in the world so it was an absolute treat to have got him. It’s right up there among the best wickets I have ever taken.

It was just a good ball, I put it in the right area. We’d talked about where we needed to put it and I did exactly that and he came forward and nicked it behind.

I was told, as well, that I had got three wicket maidens, which is pretty special – it was just a shame about the result.

There was enough in the pitch at that stage, we bowled OK, but they bowled well in the second innings when the pitch was a bit more uneven.

Glen Chapple was outstanding. He’s probably the toughest bowler I’ve ever faced and I have faced Muralitharan and others. Chapple is always on you, you never get a minute and you never know what’s coming. It’s a challenge.

We were happy to bounce back so quickly on Sunday. There was a stage when we thought we were not going to get to play at all. A lot of people had to be called back pretty quickly.

In situations like that you often get boys who go off to the gym on the other side of town and maybe grab a coffee on the way back.

I was in the indoor school hitting some balls with Dewald Nel when we came out and had a look.

It still looked wet but then pretty quickly the sun came out and we were good to go.

It was good to beat a team like Notts, even if it is never ideal playing a short game. You just have to play as hard and aggressive as you can.

It’s good fun batting with Azhar Mahmood. He’s an old head with experience and he is a calming and relaxing presence out there, even when it’s tense. He sets me little challenges.

In the t20 game against Essex, he told me to go out and hit the 20 we needed off an over, which I did, and the other day he said we should aim for 120 by the end of the penultimate over – I think we got to 130.

We only got five off the last over because Ryan Sidebottom bowled brilliantly, the best I’ve faced at the death. We had nowhere to go with him.

It is tough, what’s going on at the club off the pitch but we will fight hard to stay up in Division 1. In the Pro 40, if we can win our last three games – which I have no doubt that we can – then who knows what we can achieve.

I have been playing a bit of golf this week – first the Hoppers Golf Day at Faversham on Monday, when my team finished second and then Ashley Giles’ Celebrity Golf Day to benefit Cure Leukaemia at the Forest of Arden club in Warwickshire.