WITHAM Cricket Club captain Jake Wakelin believes a stunning victory against Mistley can be the springboard his team have needed to prove their pedigree at the top of the Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Championship standings.

Wakelin's side headed into their division one clash against the Swans on the back of a run when some sketchy batting performances had seen them win just one of their previous six games.

However, led by big innings from the skipper, who scored 92, and club chairman Simon Jones, who hit 89, they chased down Mistley's imposing total of 289 for a three-wicket win.

And Wakelin believes they can use the confidence from their performance to push back up the league - starting against Hadleigh on Saturday.

He said: "I felt we hadn't done enough this year with the bat and we had a lot to prove.

"We needed to stand up as a team and be counted.

"A couple of us did that and that was very pleasing to see and I think it was one of the best run chases I have been involved in.

"I couldn't really explain why we hadn't been firing in recent games, but this was a big game for us and we had to perform.

"Had we lost, we would have been in trouble but we took so many positives from this result and we can now get ourselves on a good run.

"I said in the dressing room after the game that we can now put the bad run behind us.

"Confidence is back up and everyone was buzzing with that win.

"It was a good chase and one that has got everyone excited so we want to go on a four or five game run now.

"We have a chance to get ourselves back up the league to where we feel we deserve to belong.

"The league table doesn't lie, but we have proved to ourselves and other people that we should be up there and challenging towards the top."

Witham's win came the hard way, though, as they had to chase down an imposing total by the hosts and Wakelin admitted that it may have been even harder had they not stayed tight in the field at the end of the Swans' 50 overs.

The chase didn't got off to the greatest of starts as Witham found themselves at 62 for three when James Suett departed, but with Jones joining the captain at the crease, they set about turning fortunes around.

The pair put on 102 before Wakelin was out for 92, but with Forster Mutizwa partnering Jones, the visitors kept the pace up.

Mutizwa was caught behind for 42 and Jones eventually departed while on 89 but they had done enough to get Witham within sight of the line and Greg Stephens and Carl Bragg made sure they got home with six balls to spare.

"It was a very good batting performance," added Wakelin.

"The batters have let the bowlers down a few times this year, but it was pretty impressive this time.

"We showed a lot of courage in the game.

"With ten overs to go of Mistley's innings, it looked like they would be on for 320 but we minimised it and kept them back to 289, which was excellent.

"We were then struggling at 60 for three, but myself and Simon Jones came in and played captain and chairman's innings.

"We both knuckled down and backed ourselves; batting sensibly and without any errors and that's exactly what we needed.

"When you're 60 for three and chasing 290, you'd say your chances of winning are two or three out of ten, but we knew if we steadied the ship and kept ticking over, then we could get there.

"It was a shame neither of us got what would have been deserved hundreds but the other lads got us over the line."

Wakelin said Bragg was set to miss the trip to Hadleigh on Saturday, but he expected Leroy Facey to return after several weeks out with an abdominal injury.