It finally seems as if we are now in a tournament proper, and I think it was obvious how we used the cut-throat nature of our must-win game against Afghanistan to raise our performance.

The Afghanistan team have obviously been one of the major talking points of the tournament, and congratulations to them for having come so far, so quickly.

They have a couple of decent players, but we were fully focused on our own game and we expected it to be hard, which it certainly was when we batted.

It's not our intention to come out and bully teams, but if needs be so be it and I thought our attack was really fearsome and our body language in the field was excellent too. That win has allowed us to get into the tournament, so to speak.

The conditions obviously helped our fast bowlers more than in St Lucia, which was a bit slow and did not have as much pace and bounce, but it was a good batting wicket.

But pitches in India, Pakistan and the West Indies are all very similar, the ball stops a bit, and we play on them all the time so there is really no excuse for not adapting. A yorker is a yorker wherever you play, it doesn't matter what sort of wicket you bowl it on!

Barbados is exactly as advertised in all those glossy brochures and I know the guys were all very keen to get here because there are lots of things to do outside the hotel, you can relax on the beach or catch a few waves.

I also managed to sneak off and play a round of golf with Paul Collingwood and Rob Walter, our fitness trainer, at the Apes Hill course. Had a great time and what a secluded masterpiece that course is! It's rated one of the premium courses in the world, and I can certainly see why.

Speaking of rated highly, our first Super Eight opponents are New Zealand and they have a number of potential match-winners in their line-up.

The nerves and adrenalin are already starting to build hours before the game, but we had a good recovery session and chat today and we're confident of quickly hitting our straps again.

The guys are feeling relaxed, though, and we feel that we are finally in the tournament proper after the disruptions of the first week. We know we have the players to beat New Zealand, but it will take clinical execution of the game plan.