Mark Ramprakash: What I've Learnt This Week

England will be kicking themselves for drawing the series with Sri Lanka, not so much because they lost the third Test but because they should have had the series sewn up already.

There must have been a few raised eyebrows when the England boys turned up at Trent Bridge to see a dry, white surface, perfect for spin, with Muttiah Muralitharan playing. But England were done by a solid performance and everyone, bar the England batsmen, would have enjoyed watching Murali, one of the best spinners of the modern era, doing his stuff.

It was a wonderful performance and a privilege to see his mastery and range of skills. The key ball in Murali's armoury is his doosra. It is important to remember that he taught himself how to bowl it and that is a great message for young cricketers: The world's best look to keep improving and stay one step ahead of the rest.

The stand-out thing about Muralitharan's performance was his accuracy. All spinners must be accurate in the modern game because batsmen look to sweep, slog sweep, reverse sweep and run down the track to bowlers. Murali also bowls at different paces and turns it both ways so that makes him a real handful.

From England's perspective, when you chase 300 in a fourth innings it seems a long way away because of the pressure. It is hard to describe, but the batsmen know that if they play a poor shot - for instance, get stumped - they run the risk of some heavy criticism. England didn't know whether to graft or play big shots.

That is why I admired Alec Stewart and Graham Thorpe so much because they always played their natural game no matter what the situation. They were aggressive and tried to score: live by the sword, die by the sword. Someone with Mike Atherton's temperament would have enjoyed that pressure on Monday. When we knocked off 260 against South Africa at Trent Bridge he hit a brilliant 90. He enjoyed and revelled in that type of pressure.

It brings me to something I have learnt at Surrey. Saqlain Mushtaq and Ian Salisbury, our two spinners, use the dust from the pitch on their hands to put on the ball and they don't shine one side. The ball then gets dull and it becomes difficult to read which way it will turn if you don't pick it from the hand.

In this way Murali is massively different to Shane Warne, who ticks all the boxes for accuracy and has a big personality and a good cricket brain. Warne, however, gets big turn and shines the ball. The shine helps him to get drift, which is where he differs from Murali. I can't split the two, though, it is impossible to say which of them is the better.

2. Knocking talents is counter-productive

While we are on spin I want to give massive praise to Monty Panesar.

I have a bee in my bonnet about this. All I keep seeing are headlines saying Monty's fielding could ruin his career. I don't think he is getting the praise a 23-year-old spinner, thrown in against Sri Lanka, who are very good at playing spin, should. He bowled magnificently at Trent Bridge getting 5 for 78. Outstanding figures. He had control, accuracy and spin.

No wonder we are struggling to find young spinners if we keep knocking them. He is the best young left-arm spinner since Tuffers [Phil Tufnell]. A lot is said about Tuffers, but he won matches for England. It is no coincidence that Surrey are doing well: we have two great spinners, Salisbury and Nayan Doshi.

In Championship-winning sides I've played in you need two spinners. But with spinners you have to be patient and help them along.

3. You have to get the psychology right

I was going to avoid mentioning Wayne Rooney in this column but I can't.

The handling of his injury has not been right. Sven Goran Eriksson said from the off that he was integral to the team. Now, if he does get fit there is tremendous expectation on him.

It reminds me of the last Ashes tour when England picked Darren Gough and Freddie Flintoff even though they both had injuries. Psychologically, the other players were hoping they would be fit and when they were ruled out it was demoralising and deflated the team. They should have played down Rooney's chances and bigged up the other players, given them the belief that they could win the World Cup. If he does get fit it is then a complete bonus.

At the moment English cricket is falling into the same trap: all the talk of Michael Vaughan, Andrew Flintoff, Steve Harmison and Simon Jones. We should talk more about who is coming in and doing well. Alastair Cook and Owais Shah have done brilliantly when they have played, so we should talk about them.

On today's World Cup game, England must dictate and say, "Can you handle us"? They need to show Frank Lampard can play with Steven Gerrard. But when one goes the other must hold. I'm going to say England will reach the semi-finals and slug it out with Brazil. It is hard to look past Brazil to win it, though, as much as I'd like to.

Surrey need to beat Leicestershire by 2pm today so we can then watch it at The Oval with a couple of diet colas. Rikki Clarke likes to think he knows his footy, but he supports Spurs so that discounts him really. I'm looking forward to Thursday too. We will be in the hotel bar in Bath for the Trinidad game. It's just a question of how many against them.

4. Himbo heroics make the rest look ordinary

I must mention James Benning who shone in our game against Essex last week.

Benning - affectionately known as Himbo, a male version of a Bimbo - struck 63 off 44 balls to take us to victory. He made it look ridiculously easy. I was out there and had made a three-hour 40. When Benning was smashing it about the umpire looked at me and said: "What have you been buggering about for?"

5. The Windies have lost a gear or two

I was watching West Indies against India from Antigua the other night when the Windies were in the field. Ian Bradshaw was bowling at 77mph from one end and Dwayne Bravo at 75mph from the other. How things have changed. Both batsmen - Mohammad Kaif and Yuvraj Singh - were batting out of their creases and playing everything off the front foot. When I played in the Windies if you wanted to drive you needed a car and such was the abundance of quick bowlers the locals would say you could grab an airport porter as you arrived and stick him in the team and he'd do a job.

It was a far cry from when Courtney Walsh bowled 11 bouncers out of 12 balls to Robin Smith and finally broke his jaw on the same ground back in 1990. I remember watching from behind the sofa.

The game the other night went down to the final over and reminded me of a Championship game at Lord's in 1997 when me and Tuffers - the last pair - were at the crease needing three to win. We'd put on 20 when Tuffers propped forward to a spinner to be caught off bat and pad. To be fair to Tuffers he wasn't bad at playing spin - they couldn't hurt him, after all - but I wished at the time he'd had a swing and got hold of one.

6. Too many offies can make your head spin

England announced their one-day squad on Thursday and I think they missed a trick by not picking Surrey's Rikki Clarke. He is an obvious like-for-like replacement for Flintoff. Jamie Dalrymple is an off-spinner who bats nicely, but it is surprising they have gone for two offies.

It is three years since the last World Cup and England are still building, still experimenting and clutching at straws. In the best one-day sides everyone knows their role in the team, but we don't have that. Who's going to take the new ball, who's opening, who's batting three, why two offies? It's all up in the air.

7. Family fun on the farm comes as welcome relief

It was great to have the family back this week after they went away for half-term. I'm looking forward to tomorrow as we are going to Willows Farm as a family. They have farm animals and rides and the kids should love it - especially as the weather is supposed to be nice. It will be nice to spend some time with them and get away from the cricket.

8. When a century is par for the course

On Monday I played golf. Everyone keeps telling me cricketers make good golfers. Not all cricketers.

I hit a few over extra cover but couldn't get them to straighten up. That's another score of over 100 this season.

Best Delivery of the Week

The ball from Murali that got Geraint Jones was a cracker. Delivered from wide of the crease, it angled in and then turned sharply to hit off stump.

Best Shot of the Week

The ever-improving Monty Panesar's six off Murali may keep critics quiet for a bit.