Gary Ballance column: It may have been a three-and-a-half-week gap since our last Championship match but we are still definitely on a high from our good form in the first half of the season, which saw us win four of nine matches.

Not only that, but we could have won another couple of the games we drew.

We head into our match against Derbyshire at Chesterfield this week in high spirits and looking forward to an exciting second half of the season.

You’d be lying as a professional cricketer if you said that you weren’t looking at the table, especially in the second half of the season. We are aware that Durham and Sussex both won last week. But the main thing is, as we keep saying, to concentrate on what we can do. If we can get a win against Derby, we will be in a very good position.

It is going to be an exciting end to the season for everybody and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if another team came into the race yet because there are some good sides like Warwickshire and Notts who will fancy their chances if they get on a roll.

A number of teams have done that over the last few years in the second half of the season, including ourselves in 2010 when we nearly won it.

Three of the four days at Chesterfield last year were washed out by rain. I’m pretty sure with the weather like it is at the moment, we shouldn’t have that problem again.

The first Ashes Test match has been brilliant entertainment. As a county cricketer you do get to dip in and out of the action every now and again, whether it be after training or on a day off. I managed to watch quite a bit of Saturday’s play, and it’s something I really enjoy doing to relax and switch off.

I’m confident that England will win the series because they’ve got a lot of quality but I do expect it to be tough because Australia have some good young bowlers in their team.

We have got quite a lot of Yorkshire interest in the series, with Darren Lehmann as coach of Australia and Mitchell Starc playing for them against Jonny, Joe and hopefully Tim at some stage.

Lehmann and Starc are popular figures at our club but there’s no divided loyalties. The majority of us are desperate for the English Yorkies to come out on top!