And like that Wellington Firebirds are out of the State Shield, the domestic one-day competition, and there is still one match to go. We're rock bottom, we've won three from nine and in those six losses five of them have been, for lack of a better word, hidings. We have really lost badly in more games than we should have. Yes we are hit hard when the Black Caps are playing but in saying that, in the last two matches, one close loss and one beating, we've been at absolute full strength. Mark Gillespie, Jeetan Patel, Grant Elliott, Jesse Ryder, James Franklin and I in the one team should go a, very, long way to certainly winning more games than we lose. Excuses: I have none; we just haven't played anywhere near consistently enough.

This last game was against Canterbury; we had been given a sound hiding by them at their place early in the competition and we needed a win, let alone revenge win, to stay a chance in the competition.

We batted first on a track that we had already used twice in the previous two matches at the Basin. It was looking a whole lot dryer and tired than it had done in the last match against Northern Districts, where it was a very good one-day track! We really needed to score huge and hope the pitch got harder and harder to score on as the match went on and, hopefully, give us a chance for a bonus point by keeping them to 80% of our score; neither of those was to happen. We scored 217 off 49 overs which was Duckworth-Lewis-ed up to 220 as we lost that over in the middle of the innings because of rain.

Handy start with Jesse and Belly putting on 48 for the first wicket, but that was where that ended. The next best partnership was just over 30 and the rest averaging around 15; really not enough if you need to put a big score on the board.

No sixes for me today, but I did hit one a couple of games back against Auckland ... what's that, you want to hear about it? Oh, ok.... Nine down, I head out to bat with one ball left in the innings. "Where should I try to hit it?" I ask as I walk past the guys on my way out. "Over long-on" is the answer. Not the biggest of boundaries at Auckland's Eden Park Outer Oval so I guess anything was a chance. Daryl Tuffey had the ball in hand, I set myself up just before he lets the ball go into a bit of a golf stance, and I see it and hit it. Not over long-on but over extra cover clearing the boundary and the advertising signs losing my balance in the process; I ended up running around the stumps past Gareth Hopkins, who was keeping, and back off to the shed to change and have the lunch break with a cheeky smile on my face.

Anyway, enough of that, I did have a promotion in this game to 10, from 11 in the batting line-up. There was still 4.3 overs left when I headed out to bat accompanied by "Bad Medicine" by Bon Jovi; we get to pick our own songs to walk out to and I very much like this one.

Shane Bond was bowling, it seems every time I bat against Canterbury I have to face Bondy, although this track wasn't quite as quick or bounce as the last one. Bondy bowled really well, I couldn't get bat on ball, he was bowling big leg-cutters that were bouncing a bit too. I had no idea although did manage to get eight off the 13 balls I faced. Not quite the 600 strike rate in my last innings, but it meant we faced out our overs which added three extra runs to our score; we were going to need every run we could get our hands on. The innings could have been a little different with James Franklin given out LBW on 45. I'm not saying it was a bad decision, but sometimes they go your way and sometimes they don't. No excuses, maybe things could have been different. That's why cricket is one of the most debated topics in the summer. So many little bit and pieces that can be dissected and discussed.

So, firstly we have to defend 220, but if we can, we need to hold them to, or dismiss them for, less than 177; both were going to be big asks. And we couldn't do either. Canterbury knocked it off for three in the 46th over. Peter Fulton playing the anchor role and scoring a patient 85 off 122 which included a six and two fours in the last couple of overs he faced to pump that strike-rate up just a little. He did the job they needed.

As I've said I've been working hard on my one-day bowling, and it's paying off. I might not be taking as many wickets as some but my RPO has been pretty good. Two games ago I sat down with the analysis computer (called the 'Pooch', don't ask me why) and looked the areas I had been bowling, the percentages of balls in three different line channels. The channels were 'middle and leg', 'off and just outside' and then 'wide of that'. I then compared my percentages of balls pitching in those areas to a couple of other guys that had been bowling well and were having success and worked out that I had to change my lines a little. Since I did this analysis and worked on my lines my RPO has come down and I've been a better bowler; always learning, always trying to get better.

We now head to Invercargill for our last match, against Otago, in the series, there is still a semi and final to be played, we're not involved; we'll be training for the Twenty20 competition which now follows; or, hopefully, selection for the Chappell-Hadlee series in Australia. Who knows!

	Matthew Bell flicks to leg during his 23 © Getty Images

Ahh, that's better. Back on track with a very good win against a very good team. The papers call it an upset although I just happy with it being a game where a couple of us (Wellington Firebirds) played better than they did. We are a good team, we've just been playing some average cricket.

Belly won the toss. I felt it was an important one as it looked like a deck that certainly would help the bowlers. It did, we just didn't bowl to well to start with. It swung and did a little off the track and it looked like, to start with, we really tried to bowl quick and swing it big. Sometimes those things just happen without trying too hard as you get carried away with the conditions, wind up and it comes out all wrong.

I was into the attack in the seventh over; a little earlier than I have bowled when coming on as the 3rd seamer. I was quite excited about this actually. I wanted to get into it on. First over went for 6, next went for 4 with two wides in it. Ten off two, not the best start. It was pretty good from there though.

I had got out to warm ups in the morning with a bit of a sore shoulder. Had bowled at training the day before and everything had been fine, but the morning of this match there was a little twinge there, to the point where I thought I might have been doubtful for a start. I got into my bowling warm ups a little earlier than normal to test it out and give the 'all clear' to the captain. It wasn't 100%, but it certainly wasn't hurting as much as it was before warming up or feeling like I was doing more damage to it. Was pretty happy with the bowling first too as I wouldn't have to cool down and then warm up again 3½ hours later.

I bowled my 10 overs in two spells, first one of eight and then two towards the end. I finished up with 2-33 with a couple of decisions that could, on another day, gone the other way, also had Howza dropped before he scored and he went on to get 88*; good players make you pay. I was pretty happy with how it came out. I have been working on bowling a bit straighter than I have done in the past and from the stats, in this match, I am pretty close to what I think is about the right amount of balls in the right 'lines' category. It swung for me and it came out as quick as I certainly could have hoped for. It just felt really good, in saying that I did bowl my first extras of this one-day campaign. I bowled three wides yesterday after bowling none in the previous four matches. I can't even tell you why it did swing, but from where I was trying to bowl it should have been fine. I'm not going to lose any sleep over it, just as long as I don't over step and get no-balled, that's a real no-no!

Set 264 to win, CD had batted well and got more than I would have estimated at the start of the innings, but maybe less that they could have from 120-2. They did also score 55 off the 'batters' power play, 52 of them in four overs and I managed to sneak in the other over that went for three. That may sound like a bit of 'trumpet blowing' but I'm pretty proud of how things go sometimes and so why not show it.

We knocked 264 off in the 46th over with six wickets still in the shed. There was even talk of possibly going after the bonus point by getting there by the 40th over. Now that would have been cheeky and probably not a risk we needed taking after not batting so well, especially, in the previous two matches. Belly and Naps opened. A change at the top of the order with Nap's heading up there to give the start of the innings a bit of a kick start, it worked. Off to a bit of a flyer and when this happens it makes bowling a whole lot harder; the nerves and mind start going, you start thinking about what happens when you bowl a bad ball, or even good balls disappearing past and over fielders. The pressure is back on the fielding captain, his job becomes tough. Belly batted through until we needed just two runs to win; a great knock and one that obviously won it for us. It wasn't a classical innings but that don't matter when you have success and win.

I wrote all that about 3 days ago, just prior to the match we have just played against Auckland and haven't had a chance to post it because of travelling and playing and also moving. I've now got a place to live! More frequent updates shouldn't be a problem now

Days like yesterday hurt. It doesn't matter that I had a reasonable game, as it's the end result that really matters.

We got destroyed by a team that has, over the last couple of years, played some impressive one-day cricket. Otago have never, generally, been considered favourites in cricket for a long time. We (Wellington Firebirds) went into the match as one of the two stronger teams in the country (us and CD) aware of what kind of cricket Otago can play. If they get their tails up then they are as strong as opposition as there is around. And yesterday they had more than just their tails up.

We had just come off a good close win against a strong Auckland team a couple of days earlier; that was the first win I had been a part of since the first Test against Bangladesh in Chittagong, it had been a long time! From there and into the gym the day after and training at 10am on New Year's Day.

No resolutions, as I don't do them, but I certainly have goals and if you've been reading, then I don't have to mention them all. Apart from the obvious short-term one (getting into the ODI team, there, I told you so you don't have to go back and read...), there are still two Test matches towards the end of this summer, against India, that I am targeting to continue my Test match form.

Obviously, to play or to be in contention to play, I have to be fit. This is often the toughest thing to work with as injuries can just happen, freak things or general wear and tear over the course of what will be a longer season than I have previously been involved in. It started all the way back in Chennai on a New Zealand A tour to play against India A (a series we won too!). So the gym plays a big part in me staying strong physically, and the stronger I am physically the less likely that I fall to pieces. The problem with that is the gym sessions are tough and trying to work them into a full week of training and playing and also trying to get the rest needed to recover is the fine balance that we're always looking for.

Anyway, back to yesterday's match, although the less said about that the better, maybe!

We batted first after losing the toss; we were pretty keen on batting anyway. It was a better start than we've had for a while as we got to 33 before losing our first wicket. This still isn't good enough, but it's going in the right direction at least.

A great 82 knock from Flea (Neal Parlane) in a partnership of 142 with BJ Crook, who backed up his last match score of 75 against Auckland with a controlled 65 took us through to 199 at the start of the 46th when they were now both dismissed. In the last five overs of the innings we only scored 20 runs, that's almost 30 short of what is quite often done at that stage of a innings with wickets in hand. It gave Otago the momentum to take into their batting innings, and boy did they come out swinging and it's fair to say that, as a bowling group, we didn't adjust and work the right plan quick enough. It wasn't really good enough from a reasonably well-experienced attack.

Otago knocked the target off inside 40 overs, it gained them a bonus point for getting there so quick, and really put us in our place. My figures, at the end, weren't flattering. I felt I bowled quite a bit better than they would suggest, not a good as I could have, but I'm heading in the right direction.

Today, the day after yesterday's match, I headed up to see our masseur for a rub; my legs were starting to get a bit sore yesterday afternoon. During training the previous day I had done some extra speed work. I think this may have had some left over effect on my legs going into the match, not at the start, but towards the end of the overs in the field. I'll either have to get used to it or have a look at the programme that I'm working to and see if we can make some changes.

Head to Christchurch tomorrow to play Canterbury on Monday and then fly back Monday night after the match. This is always tough, so it'll be a quick pack up, quick shower, compression tights and travel kit on and off to the airport. It's always a little rushed, but sometimes it's got to be done; and it does get you home to your own bed (and family) as soon as possible. That's if you have a home, a flat, or even a place to stay, I'm currently looking for a flat/apartment to rent for the remainder of the summer. I'm kind a living like a hobo at the moment, skipping from house to house when I'm in Wellington. Not the best situation, but being used to living out of a suitcase it's not that much of a problem, hopefully something will pop up soon.

That's two updates in one day, hope you're enjoying them.

	At the moment with the bowling I've had behind me and the training I'm doing I really feel good about being able to execute deliveries and my plans © Getty Images

It's New Year’s day and I'm on the couch resting up for tomorrow’s one-day match against Otago.

A quiet night last night, went out and had a couple of beers with some of the Wellington boys, home by 12.30 very sober and very much looking forward to sleep. I'm not one for the late nights too often, especially when I know I have to get up and train the next day. I just can't operate tired, let alone, with a hangover, at all!

Training today at 10am, but before we start training we debriefed the Auckland match from two days ago.

The first half of this game went according to plan, the second half, not so. We bowled Auckland out for 197 in the 50th over. We'd bowled really well and really denied Auckland scoring opportunities through the innings. Nap's (Graham Napier), again, was brilliant. Another four wickets to his name while Woody (Luke Woodcock) picked up three, including a double-wicket maiden to start his first spell. Genius!

James Franklin came back into the team meaning he would take the new ball with Naps. This suited me as if I am to make the New Zealand one-day team, and play, I won't be picked as a new-ball bowler, but as the third seamer. A role that is more suited to my style as I don't swing it as much as a couple of the other guys.

I had a chat, at the end of the Test series, to one of the selectors asking what I had to do to be considered for the one-day team. And this was one of them, being able to do the role for Wellington that I would do for NZ. So, the third seamer’s role, for Wellington, is mine and here I can do what I have been asked to do by the selectors; had a good day with the ball too. No wickets, alas, but that's as good as I've bowled in a one-day match in regards to lines, lengths and variations. 9.1 overs for 34 that included 2.1 overs at the death, not normally a part of the game I've been strong with. I hit yorkers when I wanted to and my variations were spot on. As I've said, it's such a confidence game and at the moment with the bowling I've had behind me and the training I'm doing I really feel good about being able to execute deliveries and my plans.

The second half of the match didn't start so good; three down in the sixth over for just 17 runs. Enter Franky and BJ (Crook) for a 98-run partnership and when that was broken enter Nevs (Chris Nevin) for an innings that just oozed experience. We got there six down with 1.5 overs left in the innings. There certainly were some twitchy guys in the viewing room, myself included.

Training today went well. The body is still a little tired but I warmed up real quick and had some good rhythm in the nets. Today, for me, was about cranking it up to full pace and then going through the variations that I will be using tomorrow, including working on a new slower ball to go with the one I already bowl. The new one went really well and may just make its debut tomorrow in the match.

I wish you all the happiest of new years, all the best for it! Be safe, prosperous and most of all happy!!