WITHAM Cricket Club skipper Jake Wakelin believes his side can hold their nerve during the title run-in.

The club have defied all expectations during the Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Championship division one season and now sit second, following last week’s win against Halstead.

The impressive display, added to a previous run of three back-to-back victories for the team, leaves them in touching distance of leaders Sudbury.

And Wakelin is confident his side can keep cool heads during their final fixtures.

“Four wins in a row is great for us and confidence is high,” he said.

“There are no nerves among us really - just excitement.

“The team has really gelled this year and come a long way from being around the bottom of the table in the past.

”We just want to keep on doing what we’re doing, playing sharp attacking cricket and enjoying ourselves.”

Wakelin was the star of the show in last week’s victory.

The captain notched his latest century before taking two wickets against Halstead, as the side picked up 19 points from their 66-run win.

“It’s obviously nice to get the century and help the team win,” he said.

Witham’s cause was helped by the cancellation of the match between Mildenhall and Coggeshall.

Both are high-flying rivals, but by virtue of not playing both only received six points.

“It’s unfortunate but it happens in cricket at this level,” said Wakelin.

“Obviously we gained an advantage from it and we’re well placed in second now.”

Witham now face the challenge of maintaining their momentum and putting pressure on Sudbury, with just seven games left to play.

They host Frinton’s second team this weekend and also have a key match at home to the leaders looming on August 22.

The latter promises to be a crunch clash but Wakelin is staying grounded.

“We have one eye on the Sudbury game but a lot of hard tests before that and we’re not getting ahead of ourselves,” he said.

“The Mildenhall fixture comes just after Sudbury and that will be massive too. After that the top spot could be anyones.”