Ilford are very confident says captain Nigel Jacobs as they travel away to Old Southendian and Southchurch looking to continue chasing down the front-runners.

The Valentines Park outfit are unbeaten in their last six fixtures and are the form team in Hamro Foundation Essex Division One.

They will look to make it seven games unbeaten but they will not take their opponents lightly.

“We’ve gone six weeks now without losing, I think that is the first time that has happened for me as an Ilford player over the last 10 years,” Jacobs said.

“Everyone is confident and happy. Old Southendian although they’re in the bottom two, we lost to them in our first home match, so we won’t take them lightly.

“We like to have the same intensity whether we’re playing top of the league or playing bottom of the league. The league is still very congested.

“A couple wins they could be up the table, a couple wins for us then we can be the top two.”

They sealed a nine wicket victory over Upminster on Saturday as they won the toss and elected to field first where they restricted their opponents to 151 with Mohammad Ahktar (5-32), Theeban Tavarasa (4-103), and Prahathen Jayarooban (1-13) all impressing.

Ilford Recorder: Akhil Anil in bowling action for Ilford during Ilford CC (fielding) vs Loughton CC, Hamro Foundation Essex League Cricket at Valentines Park on 3rd July 2021Akhil Anil in bowling action for Ilford during Ilford CC (fielding) vs Loughton CC, Hamro Foundation Essex League Cricket at Valentines Park on 3rd July 2021 (Image: ©TGS Photo tgsphoto.co.uk +44 1376 553468)

Ilford cruised home in reply scoring 155-1 thanks to Akhil Anil (80 not out), Vikrant Venkathesan (10), and Akash Raji (58 not out).

“We were very pleased, it was another rain affected game, we had four or five now and we haven’t done brilliantly in them.

“What really pleased me is that it was a pretty identical game to the week before against Loughton where we chased in a reduced game. We learnt a lot from that game, corrected our mistakes, and played an almost perfect game.

“People were standing up and really taking responsibility, I'm running out of things to say about Theeban and Mo Ahktar to be honest.

“That is Mo’s third five wicket haul in five games I think, Theeban to get four wicket in a reduced game with short boundaries was brilliant, and to restrict them to 150 was a great effort.

“Especially as I mentioned getting Alan Ison out early was important. With the bat Akhil out did Al and he played brilliantly.

“Akhil is the best batsmen on the team, you’ve got Mo and myself who score quickly, but Akash is probably the most important player in the team as when he plays well it allows everyone else around him to play freely.”