Ribblesdale League: Hanif battles with the weather and the leaders (15 Aug 1998)

15 August 1998

Hanif battles with the weather and the leaders

The Lancashire Evening Telegraph

Zahir Abbass Hanif went into the biggest weekend of his first Vaux Ribblesdae League campaign on a high - after his best knock so far to blast Read into oblivion last Saturday.

But the quietly-spoken Oswaldtwistle Immanuel professional is a hard taskmaster.

And he is demanding more of both himself and his team-mates as they prepare to follow this afternoon's trip to champions Cherry Tree with tomorrow's even-tougher test at home to current leaders Padiham.

Hanif carried his bat for an unbeaten 112 as Immanuel successfully chased a 200-plus target against Read.

But they can expect sterner opposition tomorrow.

"Padiham are a strong team and I think cricket is a team game," said Hanif.

"They are the leaders but they may be over-confident and if we play well as a team on the day we can give them something to think about.

"We know we can beat teams but we will have to play at our best.

"This is a good league with some good professionals and amateurs. I have got a few runs, over 600 I think, but I am not happy with that, it should have been better.

"But it is my first year and the wickets have been on the slow side and the weather has been terrible.

"I am trying to overcome all these things."

Tomorrow will be the first time Hanif has faced the Padiham attack, for a slight injury meant he was unable to bat when the teams met in the league earlier in the season.

Wet wickets have been a major problem but at least his confidence is high after last weekend's match-winning effort which he believes was probably his best so far.

"I am getting used to the wickets being slow and it was a good innings against Read," he said.

"But it is about the team playing well."

Whatever the outcome of Immanuel's season, and they could yet climb into the top half of the table, Hanif believes the Ribblesdale League in general and his own club in particular can look forward with optimism. There are a lot of good young players around, we have quite a few at the club. I would say the future's quite bright," he added.

Tomorrow's games: Barnoldswick v Clitheroe; Blackburn N v Gt Harwood; Cherry Tree v Read; Oswaldtwistle Imm v Padiham; Ribblesdale W v Earby; Settle v Baxenden; Whalley v Edenfield.

Source :: Lancashire Evening Telegraph (https://www.reednews.co.uk/let/)