Gloucestershire’s Australian star MICHAEL KLINGER gives his take on the life at the Brightside Ground

IT was disappointing to start our NatWest T20 Blast by losing by just one run on the Duckworth/Lewis against Sussex.

We were just trying to keep ahead of the Duckworth/Lewis score and we thought we were going to keep playing the match during what turned out to be the final over.

But three balls in, without the rain getting any harder, the umpires made the call to come off.

It was a bit confusing but the umpires have to make the call and we have to go with what they think.

They said it was too wet but ninety seconds before it wasn’t.

Obviously our target was to reach the score at the end of the over and it is a shame we couldn’t get there.

It would have been a great game of cricket if we’d had the full 20 overs and we certainly felt we’d given ourselves a chance.

In terms of the Sussex innings, I thought both of our spinners bowled well.

I think with the wind going to the short boundary on the one side, we needed to defend a little bit better – we are normally pretty good at that but it is our home ground so we need to improve.

Everyone has been hugely welcoming since I got back last week.

Bristol is a second home for me and my family. We enjoy it here and I am looking forward to hopefully another successful season.

This is my fourth season over here now, it’s something I enjoy doing and I think it has helped me to be consistent in terms of runs over the last few years. After a good season last year, I don’t put any more pressure on myself to repeat it. When I play relaxed and enjoy myself, that is when I play my best.

It might be tough to beat what I did last year but as long as I am enjoying myself and having a good balance with downtime then I know I will be at my best on match day.

While I was in Australia, I kept in touch with Daws (Glos head coach Richard Dawson) during the first weeks of the current season and with a few of the guys – particularly when they got hundreds or put in a good performance.

There is more expectation on us to make finals now after winning the Royal London One-Day Cup last year.

In T20, we just missed out on the quarter finals last year so we would like to go further and try and make the final.