THE modern game of one-day cricket can mess with your head a bit as a bowler.

Take Sunday’s game against Derbyshire at Headingley, for example.

We came off having conceded nearly 340, but with a win on the board. As a bowling unit, we weren’t sure whether we’d bowled well or not.

Looking back, I think we did. We certainly kept our nerve at the end on a good wicket when Daryn Smit and Matt Critchley were scoring quickly as they chased our target of 350.

The one-day game has changed so much in recent years, even since I played my first game against Leicestershire at Scarborough in 2013 as a 15-year-old.

It is ridiculous how people are scoring a lot more than they usually did.

Batsmen are being a lot more positive. They know the ball’s not going to do much on good wickets and the ball will race away on fast outfields.

They can score at sixes and sevens without taking a risk.

I reckon batting in the middle overs in a one-day game is the easiest batting in all cricket. It’s hard for bowlers to think of ways of getting wickets.

Our plan is to get wickets and be aggressive in the middle, but sometimes you have to rein it back in and try to build pressure.

I’m a bit of a perfectionist. I want to see my figures as 3-40 from 10 overs or whatever.

As a result, I have been a bit frustrated with myself at times. That was why I kicked the ground after my spell on Sunday. I thought I’d bowled well, but I ended up conceding 64 from 10.

Sometimes you have to accept you will go for runs when you haven’t bowled too badly.

50 and 60 can be classed as a decent bowling performance, and it will probably keep going up in years to come.

Overall, I’m pleased with how the last couple of weeks has gone.

In terms of the team, we are up there at the top of the group and close to qualifying for the knockout stages, which was our aim.

We had a chat about it after the Derbyshire game and said ‘keep going and we could top the group and get a home semi’.

Even though it was closer than we wanted, we always felt in control.

Andrew Gale praised us and said ‘you can even go and have a few beers and a takeaway tonight!’ And we thoroughly deserved it.

Galey took the opportunity to rest me from last night’s game against Northamptonshire with a number of the England lads back.

Although I want to keep going, I understand it’s a big thing for me to play five games in nine days for the first team, be under pressure and take a few wickets after what happened last year.

I can take a lot out of it and be proud.

I reckon we’ve had the toughest schedule of all county teams, and it’s nice to get a bit of time off this week. It’s literally been play, day off, play, day off.

For me coming back, it’s important to have these little periods of rest.

It will also give me a chance to assess how my game’s gone and the areas I can improve. I’m confident I will return a better bowler.

Peter Handscomb has been brilliant for us. To pass the 400-run mark in his fifth innings on Sunday was a phenomenal effort.

Although his 140 was different to Jonny Bairstow’s 174 against Durham last week, it was still the sizeable knock you need in this format. It was definitely the difference between the two sides.

The way he went about it, he knew his scoring options. It was fairly low risk, and he played beautifully.

It’s got to the stage where the lads are saying in the changing rooms where he’s going to hit it for a boundary even before the ball’s bowled.

For an overseas, who you wouldn’t really know a great deal about going back eight months, to be doing that after five games is superb.

Maybe the Aussies have missed out not picking him in the Champions Trophy. But it’s a bonus for us.