12:22pm Friday 6th June 2008
By Dave Peters
KEITH Newell has warned tomorrow's opponents Reading CC to expect the backlash after his Wycombe Warriors team were bowled out for just 57 by Tring Park last week.
He has written that humbling league reversal off as a one-off and says that embarrassing 136-run defeat will not signal the start of a malaise.
He said: "We are just as capable of doing what Tring did to us to Reading."
The defeat stung Warriors like a wasp.
Director of cricket Newell said: "It was a day to forget. We've talked about peaks and troughs and this was the lowest of the troughs.
"The people we normally rely on didn't come up with the goods."
Chasing a very good Tring Park total of 193, Wycombe never got near it, falling embarrassingly short on a day when the bowlers were just as culpable as the batters in an all-round below-par show.
The wicket was wet and other umpires would not have started the game, but Newell was not hiding behind any excuses.
He said: "It would be easy for me to try and blame the pitch but I'm not going to do it. They managed to play pretty well on it and we didn't.
"We put them into bat and they got a good total because of the way we bowled.
"We didn't bowl well from the start and they got off to a bit of a flier. We didn't put the ball in the right areas. We bowled on the leg side and we paid for it."
Newell felt that 140 or 150 would have been a realistic total to chase down - but with the game starting two-and-a-quarter-hours late because of the weather, Wycombe had just 40 overs to do it and never came close.
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.bucksfreepress.co.uk