Lancashire League- Preview (4 June 1999)

4 June 1999

Lancashire League: Preview

The Lancashire Evening Telegraph

Lowerhouse professional Martin Van Jaarsveld is hoping for a win double tomorrow as he looks for cup glory on two fronts.

Van Jaarsveld will have a key role to play in Lowerhouse's attempts to reach the semi-finals of the Worsley Cup at the expense of last season's losing finalists Colne.

And at the same time he will be keeping an ear out for his native South Africa's progress against Pakistan in the World Cup Super Sixes.

The two meet at Trent Bridge in what could be the game of the tournament so far.

Van Jaarsveld rates South Africa and Pakistan as the World Cup favourites and regardless of the outcome tomorrow, believes they may have an even more important date to come further down the line.

"It could be an hors d'oeuvres for what's to come," said the Northern Transvaal batsman, who has represented South Africa at 'A' team level.

Van Jaarsveld is backing his countryman to lift the World Cup at Lord's on June 20, but has a healthy respect for Wasim Akram's Pakistan.

He said: "I would think it's going to be a very tight contest. And with the ball beating the bat a lot I'm a bit worried about their bowling line-up, plus the way they get the ball to reverse swing. "But you can never tell and my money is still on South Africa."

The South Africans have two points fewer than Pakistan after the group stages thanks to their shock defeat by Zimbabwe.

But Van Jaarsveld believes that's a result they can overcome.

"Looking back at history when we stuff it up we stuff it up big and that might have been the one," he added.

And the Lowerhouse man is confident that South Africa's all-round ability and run-making potential throughout the team will be enough to see them through.

Early Lancashire League pacesetters Lowerhouse also suffered a setback last weekend when they lost by one wicket to Colne.

However, Van Jaarsveld believes that result won't have a bearing on the cup clash at The Horsfield.

"That was a bit of a hiccup but I don't think it will make any difference, psychologically or mentally because it was such a close game. It could have gone either way.

"It's nice to stay in the winning streak but some good might come out of that," he added.

"This is a big weekend for us with the derby against Burnley on Sunday and the cup game tomorrow. "Getting to the semi-final wouldn't just be good for the side, the whole club would benefit, so it is a big game for us.

"In a knock-out you can't afford to have a bad game and we will be going out with all guns firing."

A half-century from their paid-man helped Lowerhouse beat Church in the first round. He followed that up with unbeaten scores of 91 and 65 in league wins over Bacup and Todmorden before a duck last Sunday coincided with that defeat by Colne.

Colne professional Joe Scuderi also failed to score a week ago but that was a rare blip from one of the league's most consistent performers and the biggest threat to Lowerhouse's hopes of progressing.

The pick of tomorrow's quarter-final ties sees 1997 winners Haslingden looking to repeat their recent win over reigning league champions Nelson at Seedhill.

Elsewhere, holders East Lancashire will be favourites to progress at the expense of Accrington, while Todmorden will be looking for their second home win over Enfield in the space of eight days.

Tomorrow's ties: Colne v Lowerhouse, Todmorden v Enfield, Nelson v Haslingden, Accrington v East Lancs.

Source :: The Lancashire Evening Telegraph