Indian win was vital if we are to win Sri Lankan tournament

We are one and one after the first two games but I know everyone in the team would have thought we are very unlucky not to be unbeaten at this stage of the Coca-Cola Cup.

But that is the way cricket goes and if you were making predictions at the half way point of each game I think most people would have picked opposite results.

The first game against the Lankans was a case of blowing the cobwebs out, and that was evident through the high number of extras.

I was criminal in that regard, bowling four no-balls as a spinner is just wrong. I was having a few interpretation problems with the umpire about some of his decisions but that is all part and parcel of playing in Sri Lanka.

In saying all that, I thought Chris Harris and myself pulled them back well and I was pleased with my return from my first competitive bowl in five months. We let ourselves down a bit with the bat making the task too hard at the end.

We knew the second game was must-win as there is no worse a feeling than going into four days of rest winless.

Nathan Astle batted superbly for his 10th one day international and proved yet again why he is New Zealand's finest one day batsmen. Although at the end of his innings he was starting to run out of puff, along with everyone else who batted with him, and our innings staggered to a disappointing 212.

But at the dinner interval Stephen Fleming reiterated to us that we were still well and truly in the game and that losing wasn't an option.

Our opening bowlers in Daryl Tuffey and Kyle Mills bowled one of the best opening spells I have seen and that set the scene for the rest of the game. Dion Nash was back to his best in everything he did and it makes a huge difference to the team when he gets involved in the game the way he did last night.

So now we have got four days off and since the games in Dhambulla have been called off, due to no one knowing who owns the ground, yes you read that right no one knows who own the ground, we are off to Kandy for a couple of days, just to get out of the hotel.

Three weeks in the same hotel and some of the boys would come down with a case of cabin fever.

I think everyone in New Zealand has heard there is a bit of unrest in Colombo at the moment and although it is not far away from us, it shouldn't cause us any problems.

We had to drive through a bit of a demonstration three days ago, and admittedly there was a bit of tear gas being thrown around but all the protesters looked to have smiles on their faces, or maybe they were just grimacing from the tear gas in their eyes.

Four days off is almost unheard of on an international tour so we will be making the most of it getting ready for the next ODI knowing how important it will be if we want to fulfil our goal of winning this tournament.