Ilford captain Nigel Jacobs insists they’re remaining focused on themselves rather than opponents and the league table.
Jacobs' men welcome Shenfield to Valentines Park on Saturday as they look to build on their recent fortunes which has seen them rise up to fourth in the Hamro Foundation Essex League Division One league table.
But the skipper has played down their recent form and wants his young side to stay focused on performing well.
“The table is very congested, we’re not looking too much at that, as all you can do is focus on what you can do,” Jacobs said.
“As long as we prepare well midweek and ahead of the game then the result is in God’s hands, but we’re concentrating on ourselves, and we’re not focusing too much on opposition.
“We’ve got a good enough team that if we all play well then we should win games. Shenfield are a good team.
“We haven’t heard much about their overseas, but he seems to be a decent player, Jack Plom is a decent bowler but we don’t need to be concentrating on them.”
Ilford head into the clash full of confidence after back-to-back wins in the league with the latest being a five-wicket win over Fives & Heronians.
Jacob won the toss and elected to field first where they bowled their opponents out for 169 with Theeban Tavarasa (5-42) and Mohammad Ahktar (4-77) leading the way.
In reply, Akhil Anil scored an unbeaten century with captain Jacobs (35) supporting his opening batsman well.
“It was a good win the week before against Hutton and we talked about going back-to-back as we haven’t done that in a while so it was nice to do that especially against top of the league," he said.
“It was a really good performance, it was a good pitch and to restrict them to 170 was a good effort, and when Theeban and Mohammad bowl like that everyone would struggle against them.
“With the bat we were 57-4, so it could have gone either way but then fortunately Akhil and myself put on a strong 90-odd run partnership.”
The skipper was full of praise for youngster Anil and has been ever since taking over the reigns as Ilford captain.
“I’ve been talking about Akhil ever since we started speaking almost every week. He’s the second top run scorer in the league and he’s in the top five wicket-takers in the league," he added.
“He just scored a matchwinning 100. He’s such a talented player and we’re starting to see it now. Six games, he’s scored three 50s and a 100, and his confidence is rubbing off on everyone.”
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