FOR SOME reason, Ronnie Irani took it as an insult when Shane Warne kept calling him "Mr Essex" last week.

Warney did a fantastic job at getting under Ronnie's skin without using a single swear word when we played Essex in the championship at the Rose Bowl.

Contrary to some reports, there was not one swear word or aggressive word used. Warney just called Ronnie 'Mr Essex' and it wound him up no end.

I was surprised how easy it was to get under his skin. It was probably the best bit of sledging without a swear word that I've ever witnessed!

It was fantastic to see the master at work while I was stood at mid on.

Ronnie wanted to know why Warney was getting personal but our captain would take it as a compliment if the opposition were calling him 'Mr Hampshire' as he went out to bat!

Warney also said that he wasn't surprised that everyone leaves Essex because of the way they play cricket! Ronnie confronted him and asked who he meant and Warney told him he had no idea and was just trying to wind him up!

He certainly hit a nerve, but it goes without saying that we would rather have won the match than the sledging contest.

In hindsight, it may have been a totally different result if we had batted first, but we bowled too many 'four' balls and Will Jefferson played very, very well.

It was a good cricket wicket and we didn't put the ball in the right area for long enough which cost us. But we still believe we can win the title.

If we win our last five games, I'm sure we will finish top. And if we start by beating Glamorgan this week, we'll be full of confidence for our last four games against Somerset, Durham, Leicestershire and Derbyshire.

We never give up and we're looking forward to playing Glamorgan. They've lost a couple of games on the bounce, including our nine-wicket win in Cardiff, and they didn't make the final of the Twenty20 so this is a good time to be playing them.