The East London Cricket first team will travel to Canterbury Christ Church University on Saturday to play the South Championships, hoping to make it to the final stages of the National competition.
East London will face tough opposition, competing in a four-team group featuring Kent, Exeter, and Bournemouth. The competition will be fierce with the top two teams reaching finals day.
Putting The Past Behind Them
It was at this stage last year that East London were knocked out of the competition. In a deciding game to see who would make it through to finals day, East London fell agonisingly short, losing in heart-breaking fashion to eventual Nationals winners, Portsmouth.
Coach, Arfan Akram is hoping his team can use that “painful” day as inspiration, saying: “We can learn from the disappointment from that day. Especially when Portsmouth went on to win it, the lads knew that they let themselves down, I think. They were complacent and made some really fundamental errors, whereas Portsmouth were ruthless. We’re really hoping there will be no repeat of that this weekend”.
So Close Yet So Far
Akram’s side were in imperious form throughout the group stages of the competition, winning all of their eight games comfortably. It’s perhaps no surprise then that Arfan says him and his group are “really excited and confident” heading into Saturday, adding his team can take inspiration from “a really good run in this competition in the last couple of years.”
Patience At The Bat
If there’s perhaps one department the team can improve on heading into Saturday, it’s their batting. Captain Ihtisham Mir has previously called upon his team “to avoid poor batting collapses in the future,” but Akram believes a “smarter” approach to their batting will help stop this. Coach Akram also warned his players against complacency with the bat, wanting them to play with poise and patience.
“We have to understand the context of the situation. I think sometimes we get a bit excited, and if we get a good start, we feel we have the right to score an enormous score, and before you know it, instead of being 50-0, we’re 50-2. But we’re teaching the boys to be street-smart and hopefully we’ll see that this weekend.”
With East London coming so close last year, the squad now have the experience and the talent to go all the way in this year’s competition. Here’s hoping the team have learned from their short comings last year and can bring the first silverware of 2020 back to East London.
