Braintree Cricket Club will head to Sudbury on Saturday full of confidence after securing a seventh straight Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Championship win when they beat Mildenhall seconds by five wickets.

That win was enough to lift Braintree to the summit of the division two table and captain Dan Garner was pleased with the determination his team showed in getting over the line.

He added: "Our performance against Mildenhall was more determined than anything.

"Mildenhall posted a good score batting first of 260, but in the conditions, I was confident of chasing anything under 300. "We stayed in the game well while they put partnerships together.

"Looking at the game now, I should have used more of our bowling options during their innings but I was happy with their score and our chances of chasing it.

"Our reply was certainly more structured compared to the rest of our season.

"We were constantly up with the rate and ahead at times.

"Mildenhall came back at the end with a few wickets to make it tighter than we would have liked but needing just one run from the last over was comfortable enough."

The key partnership in Braintree's run chase came between Chris Leech and Dan Chalk as they staged a second-wicket stand of 158, with Leech falling just one run short of what would have been a deserved century and Chalk making 79.

Garner said: "Chris thoroughly deserved to get to 100 as his knock of 99 was the best innings I have seen him play.

"He didn’t give any chances to Mildenhall and scored at a consistent rate.

"He and Dan both batted superbly.

"Dan was his usual flamboyant best, smashing some unbelievable shots over the boundary and their partnership was crucial to our win and both deserve the credit for their respective knocks."

Garner admitted that there were a few heated moments between the two sets of players during the match, but he was comfortable that no-one had crossed a line.

He added: "To be honest, what happened on the pitch was satisfactory.

"Yes there were 'discussions' between teams and a few heated moments but nothing that meant the umpires had to get involved and remove players."