Experience counts as Wycombe survive (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Experience counts as Wycombe survive

9:40am Friday 3rd September 2010 in

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WYCOMBE Warriors would have been relegated this season were it not for their experienced players.

That is the view of director of cricket Keith Newell, who spent all season calling for his main men to live up to their reputations and finally saw them do it when it mattered most.

A defeat at Aston Rowant last Saturday would have drawn Wycombe back into serious trouble with one match left, but they chose that game to show what they’re really made of and Rowant had no answers at all.

Wycombe stormed to a 206-run victory to draw a line under talk of relegation, and Newell believes their been-there-done-that players pulled them through.

We know we have done it in the past. We know we can get the 100s and the five-fors, and once that started happening again the floodgates opened.

He said: “Our experience showed through in the end. If we were one of the promoted sides and new to the Premier League, I don’t think we’d have pulled ourselves out of it.

“But we know we have done it in the past. We know we can get the 100s and the five-fors, and once that started happening again the floodgates opened.

“It’s been a hell of a journey trying to drag ourselves out of it, but in the end we did it pretty emphatically. You can’t be much more emphatic than we were on Saturday.

“I can’t remember another time when we’ve clicked so well.”

Wycombe were rooted to the foot of the table after losing their eighth match of the season to Aston Rowant on their own track.

Rowant were two places above them at that stage, but their paths have diverged since then.

Rowant have continued to struggle for points while Wycombe, with four wins in the second half of the season, have climbed the table steadily.

Newell said: “We were in a good place before the match on Saturday. We knew we’d been playing good cricket and the confidence was sky high. We knew we were a team playing at the top of its game.”

A 186-run partnership between captain Matthew Eyles and Nitin Sehgal, their highest of the year by a margin, set them up magnificently and Newell believes their opponents were beaten after that.

He said: “Those two batted brilliantly. They leant on anything even slightly short and wide and were putting it to the boundary.

“They gave us a brilliant start and I think the first two hours completely dampened Aston Rowant’s spirits.

“We were expecting a cup final feel, you get that sometimes in these matches, but they weren’t quite as up for it as we were expecting. Maybe their confidence was a bit low.”

Chasing 301-4, Rowant imploded to 95 all out, with Dan Senior (4-20) and Pete Connell (3-36) leading the way with ball in hand.

Wycombe have to cross the T’s and dot the I’s with a home match against Tring Park tomorrow, but with safety assured Newell admits they will have to work hard to do more than go through the motions.

He said: “We’ll go out to try and win, but after last week it’s going to be a bit of an anti-climax.

“The big game was last week and we came through that.”