By Marcus Uhe
Dandenong’s difficult season in Victorian Premier Cricket continued with a five-wicket loss to Geelong at home on Saturday, which coach Warren Ayres labelled “a backwards step.”
Batting first in the 50-over contest at Shepley Oval, the Panthers were rolled for 156 in the 46th over by an economical Geelong outfit.
Just three batters, in Matthew Wilson (41 off 63), Angus Newman (22 off 38) and Gehan Seneviranne (16 off 21) scored at a strike rate higher than 50 as a steady flow of wickets restricted their ability to build a defendable total.
Wilson and Newman’s sixth-wicket stand of 42 offered the most resistance, with Wilson top-scoring before he was caught behind off Geelong seamer Thomas Neate.
Despite hitting just the two boundaries (one four and one six), he was able to rotate the strike on his way to his highest one-day score of the season.
Defending a modest total, Ayres’ side managed to take wickets with some regularity but will rue a pair of near-misses early in the innings that would have really had them in the contest.
After Braden Taeuber removed Geelong skipper Josh McDonald in the 12th over, he very nearly had a wicket next ball, but the edge off Oliver Peake’s bat fell short of the slip fielder.
In the very next over, wicketkeeper Sam Newell dropped what would have been a screamer, diving to his right off the bowling of Wilson.
Ayres said having an attacking mindset was imperative in defending a low total.
“We knew that the game wouldn’t go much more than 30 overs, so we knew we had to take 10 wickets and we tried to take them,” Ayres said.
“We kept the field relatively up and we kept the slips in for as long as we possibly could.
“If we had have taken a catch at 3-70, and had them roughly 5/80, the game could have been different.”
Newman’s 2-24 off five overs completed a solid all-round day as the Panthers’ only multiple wicket taker, but 156 was always going to be difficult to defend, and so it proved, with the visitors needing just 34 overs to chase it down with five wickets in hand.
Taeuber, Wilson and Ben Allison all chipped-in with one wicket each.
Reflecting after the game, Ayres lamented the poor showing with the bat.
“I didn’t think we batted very well, it was against some pretty good bowling, but we had to be able to cope with it,” he said.
“We fielded and bowled okay but when the game was in the balance and we needed to take some opportunities, we missed them.
“All round we were outplayed, by a pretty good team, I must say.
“We had opportunities in the game to snatch it but we didn’t take them.”
Ahead of their first two-day game in three years at Greenvale next week, Ayres said there’s a sense of excitement in the group as the Panthers look to hunt down their second win of the season.
“We planned for the two-day format from last season,” he said.
“Our batting is a batting group of accumulators, more than dashers, so for us to get into the two-day format, we hope it’s going to suit our game a lot more.”
Down at Casey Fields, Casey South-Melbourne fell four runs short of a much-needed victory on Saturday as they continue to hunt a finals position in Victorian Premier Cricket.
Bowling first, opening pair Nathan Lambden and Jackson Fry both picked up three wickets in the one-day fixture, holding Prahran to 9-240 from their 50 overs.
Only Prahran skipper Damon Egan (92 off 104) was able to pass 50 for the visitors, as Luke Shelton (2-46) and Michael Wallace (1-24) made-up the remaining wicket-takers.
A middle-order collapse of 3-38 proved detrimental in the chase for Casey-South Melbourne, with Luke Manders, Michael Wallace and Devin Pollock all falling in quick succession.
Star batter Ashley Chandrasinghe was held to just 12, as their two top run-scorers in Manders (62) and Harrish Kannan (59), like they have done all season, did the bulk of the scoring.
A win against Prahran, who sat just one-and-a-half games ahead of the Bloods before Saturday’s tussle, would have been a significant boost for their finals chances in their quest to go one-better than their runner-up finish in 2021-22.
They’ll welcome second-placed Melbourne to Cranbourne next weekend in a two-day fixture.
Meanwhile, Dandenong’s women’s suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of Melbourne, their score of 134 chased down inside 26 overs.
Jemma Reynolds and skipper Linsey Smith combined for a second-wicket partnership of 67 runs but Dandenong couldn’t build on that platform, bowled out after 34.1 overs.
Doing the damage for Melbourne was Hasrat Gill, an Endeavour Hills junior and Clyde 16-year-old who led the competition’s wicket-tally last season and is seen as an upcoming prodigy for Victoria.
Gill claimed 5/27 off her 10 overs, including the wickets of Reynolds and Smith with her crafty leggies.
Batting at three, Gill then finished unbeaten on 21 as her team cruised to a six-wicket win.
