Mark Wood's World Cup: Harry Potter, horror movies & Joe Root's sweaty gloves

This might be an obvious thing to say, but the World Cup feels different.

You have more nervous energy and you're even more desperate to do well. There's more pressure too.

That's not a bad thing. You acknowledge that things have been cranked up and you try to thrive off it. You use the adrenaline to take you forward.

This first week has seen me act as 12th man for the win against South Africa, then get my chance in the loss to Pakistan. After that, I got away from the game with a trip to Harry Potter World.

I'll talk you through all three, in order.

Root's sweaty gloves

As 12th man, you are not just running drinks. You are a communicator, a cheerleader and a kit man. Think of it more like being a domestique in the Tour de France.

When you get out there and talk to the batsman, there's no point being intense and asking if a particular bowler is quick or turning it. That would be counter-productive to a player that is just trying to have a few moments down time before he switches back on.

Instead, I'll try to crack a joke - tell him that I've put a bit of extra blackcurrant into the drink to make it ultra-strong.

However, you do have to glean a little information so you can take it back to the batsmen waiting to go in. What is the pitch like? What's a good score?

That day at The Oval was the first of two good scores by Joe Root. It's fantastic that he's in form, but he sweats a lot and wants to regularly change his gloves.

Not a lot of people know this, but we have a tumble dryer in the dressing room, so we'll put them in there. Even then we sometimes can't get them dry quickly enough, so he's been borrowing my gloves.

He has promised me he will order some more, because we have the same kit sponsor, but I bet he gets the brand new ones and I'll have the ones he has worn.

Overall, The Oval put on a real show. The atmosphere was brilliant and there was a time when I was running a drink to Liam Plunkett that I got distracted because I wanted to get involved in the singing.

It was topped off by that Ben Stokes catch. I was sitting in the dugout and I was so stunned it took me two minutes to realise that I was supposed to be running drinks out.

The thing is, though, he practises things like that. The lads who know they are going to be on the boundary - Stokes, Jason Roy - will ask coach Paul Collingwood to throw them the sort of catches where you have to take them, throw them up, then catch them again, like the one Sheldon Cottrell took for West Indies on Thursday.

When they pull them off in a match, it is no fluke.

Horror before Trent Bridge

I found out I was playing against Pakistan the day before the game.

Because I usually do most of my bowling two days before a game, my routine one day out is actually quite limited.

I'll bowl four overs - one of full pace, one of round the wicket or a particular skill, one of slower balls and one of yorkers. It's my own personal checklist that tells me I'm in good shape for the match.

The night before, I wanted to relax, and my first thought was to lock myself in the hotel.

But my wife wanted to go to the cinema. She said it would be a thriller, but it turned out to be a horror film called Mara.

Now, it wasn't that scary, but I'm no good with horror films. There were enough moments to make me jump. I was thinking 'I'm trying to relax before a game and you've got me up a height here'.

The best thing about the global tournaments is that you get to sing the national anthem before the game begins.

It's an indescribable feeling. I was between Root and Jonny Bairstow, who absolutely belt it out. It was absolutely mint.

Because I'd come into the team for Plunkett, who has been England's most successful fast bowler since the last World Cup, I felt quite a lot of pressure to take wickets.

I thought I bowled well, sticking to the plans that captain Eoin Morgan had laid. I was pleased to take a couple of wickets at the end of the innings and ended up with 2-54.

However, on the day, our fielding let us down. We had two batsmen score hundreds and we took as many wickets as Pakistan, but the 20 runs we gave away in the field cost us the game.

Were we affected by the crowd? We were too desperate to take wickets? Was it the pressure of the World Cup? I honestly don't know, especially after we had fielded so well against South Africa.

Still, one of Morgan's great strengths as captain is not getting too carried away when we win or too down when we lose.

When he spoke after the game, he made it clear that the effort in the field was unacceptable, but that we will move on and try to put it right.

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'I had a go on the broomstick'

Going from Nottingham to where I live in the north-east then back down to Cardiff for Saturday's game would have been a big trek, so me and my wife have been in London for a couple of days.

She absolutely loves the Harry Potter films and I'm a pretty big fan - Half-Blood Prince is my favourite film, possibly because I quite like the dark side of Severus Snape. He might be my favourite character, alongside Jonny Bairstow/Ron Weasley.

I couldn't quite believe how excited I was to go to Harry Potter World, almost as much as playing in the World Cup.

And, if you're going to go, you have to get right into it. So, I pulled on the Gryffindor robes and had a go on the broomstick. I must have fitted right in, because I didn't hear anyone say 'that looks like Mark Wood flying that broomstick'.

It was a great way to get away from cricket, which is an important thing to do amid the intensity of a big tournament.

If you can take your mind off the game, you come back refreshed and it improves your preparations for the next game.

That next match is against Bangladesh in Cardiff. As hosts and favourites, we knew that we had a target on our backs, and the Pakistan game proved that. Now is the time to get back on track.

That doesn't mean we'll do anything differently, though. The routines, songs in the dressing room and banter will all be same. We will stick to the things that took us to the top of the world rankings.

It is an opportunity to bounce back, show some steel and prove what we are made of.

Mark Wood was speaking to BBC Sport's Stephan Shemilt.