My first wicket for England

It was a great moment to open my account when I bowled Doug Marrilier.

We all bowled with good discipline and won fairly easily and it was good to see everyone get in the game.

Everything is crossed for Wednesday as we start our five-match series against Zim at Harare Sports Club - an old hunting ground of mine.

Let's hope it has the same good luck as it did for me before.

Andy Flintoff, Jeremy Snape, Matthew Hoggard, Chris Silverwood and I made our way there last weekend when Zim were playing South Africa.

We had our lunch in the Keg and Maiden, which is an English style pub in the centre of the pavilion, and positioned ourselves at a table just next to the big screen so we could watch the cricket so things were pretty much perfect.

Sadly the game didn't really go the distance but we were able to get a feel for the place.

I was lucky enough to see a few familiar faces, especially the Chairman of Old Georgians who looked after me when I was here last time.

Southern Africans are very proud of their countries and I have experienced this everywhere I have been.

Snapey batting against Zimbabwe A

Of course there have been problems here and they have been widely publicised, but you would never know that these things were going on.

I also met a friend who had a farm I went to visit when I was last here - I rode round the farm on horseback, sadly not to a very satisfactory end as I was thrown off, but it was a great experience.

He has now given up the farm, fortunately not as the result of any violence, and is taking his family to Australia but it was interesting to hear what was happening first hand.

At the end of the game I was invited to the Zim dressing room. This felt a little weird as I wasn't sure if this was the right thing to do.

This was a team I was hopefully going to play against and I was wondering what the management would say.

However, I made the decision as these were good friends, particularly the Flower brothers Andy and Grant, and this is a tour and an experience I am determined to enjoy.