Barking captain Shaan Shafiq is hoping they now have the right formula in place to string some wins together before the end of the shortened season.

Shafiq and his men will welcome Ilford seconds to Mayesbrook Park on Saturday as they look to build on a big 119-run victory over Harlow last weekend.

Although the skipper knows they face some tricky fixtures in the coming weeks, he feels they are ready to now compete each and every week.

“Hopefully we’ve got the right formula and can take it on to our next game. That being said I think we have some very tough games coming up against Ilford, Wanstead and Epping,” Shafiq said.

“This season is supposed to be used as preparation for the next, so if we can string some wins together then it would be great.

“Normally we would have had two or three friendlies and then been in this position, but we’ve had two or three league fixtures instead, now we’re in a position where we’re ready to play.

“We’ve worked out our batting and bowling so they will get us at our best.”

Barking head into the clash on the back of a big win, they elected to bat first and posted a score of 295-4 thanks to Tanweer Sikandar (100), Hasnain Qureshi (54), and captain Shafiq (47).

Barking then bowled their opponents out for 175 with Sikander (3-26), Umaad Sultan (3-43), and Omar Khan (3-30) leading the way.

Shafiq added: “To be fair, winning the toss helped as it was absolutely baking, so they had to chase in the hottest part of the day but that being said we had a great start and are looking way more solid.

“We had a change of team, we went with a stronger batting line-up and did well. Tanweer hit a quickfire 100, I think he came in during the 18th over and made 100 off 57 balls.

“In general we had a really good day, we only lost four wickets and batted our overs, and when we bat our overs we tend to score high and then we had a good bowling attack to restrict the opposition.”

The skipper returned to action himself after missing the previous two matches through injury, adding: “I batted for 20-odd overs and It was the worst heat I’ve batted in. I had water dripping down through the helmet, and it was my first match back, so it was tough.

“If it wasn’t for the six-over breaks due to Covid-19, I would have been knocked out through dehydration, but it was an enjoyable day and happy to be back playing cricket.”