'Batsmen not good enough' (From Free Press Series)

'Batsmen not good enough'

ABERGAVENNY coach Keith Newell has slammed his side's batting order after their worst display at the crease this season.

Newell was unsympathetic after watching his batsmen fall apart in uncharacteristic style against Premiership strugglers Pentyrch. The Avenue Road side were blown away for a messy 181/8 leaving them with a near-impossible task of salvaging something from the match.

"We were terrible," fumed Newell. "It was a nightmare really. We just didn't bat well as a unit and there was no urgency about our batting.

"We got bogged down and seemed happy to just trot along. We weren't really thinking about what we had to do. To crash to just 161 runs you're talking 50 runs short off just a par score.

"We didn't adjust to their bowling. Our batting wasn't good enough. We've lost a couple of games before, but against two of the best sides in the Premiership.

This batting performance was the worst this season. I would have rather we'd been bowled out for 150, but done so trying to bat over this performance any day."

Against a side struggling to find its footing in the Premiership this year, Abergavenny should have comfortably disposed of Pentyrch. Instead, not one of their players could muster a half-century, at the very least. Craig Barnsley was their highest scorer with a battling 39, while young Alistair Fury chipped in with 31.

All in all though that was just not good enough and Newell knows it after watching Pentyrch tie up the match on 182-4 for a six-wicket win.

"I'm frustrated and hugely disappointed," he said. "We seem to go on auto-pilot some times when we're batting rather than thinking about what we have to do. You can push the field back with proper shots and that has to be done in one day cricket. You have to build singles, it's part and parcel of the game.

"The most disappointing thing for me is that we have failed to keep the pressure on the big sides like Cardiff and Sully. They lost last week and we had an opportunity to peg them back even more, but didn't grasp it with both hands. We fell on our back sides and can't afford to do so again," warned Newell.

Abergavenny have a tough two weeks ahead of them away to Penarth this Saturday and St Fagans the weekend after. And for both games they will again be without key batsmen Andrew Jones and Lee James.

"Andrew is the backbone of our batting and without him the weakest part of our game gets a whole lot more difficult.

"We have to pull our fingers out otherwise we will lose," assured Newell. Saturday's match starts at Penarth at 1pm.