Highway foes walk fine line

By David Nagel
THE “Battle of the South Gippsland Highway” looks evenly poised in Victorian Premier Cricket after eighth placed Casey-South Melbourne (0/2) and seventh placed Dandenong (254) went toe-to-toe at Casey Fields on Saturday.
A late afternoon fightback by the Swans, where they took 4/4, brought a sudden halt to the visitor’s innings that a short time earlier had looked in good shape for a 300-plus total.
Dandenong skipper Darren Dempsey won the toss and chose to bat in ideal conditions and he would have been confident with who he sent to the crease. Brett Forsyth (57) and Tom Donnell (22) both sit inside the top five run scorers in the competition this season and lead the league in runs scored as a partnership.
Swans skipper Jake Best threw Victorian representative Jayde Herrick (1/32 off 12) the new cherry and all was set for a high quality encounter.
Early doors it was the Panthers who got on top.
Forsyth and Donnell put on 41 for the first wicket before Clive Rose (4/77 off 32) knocked over Donnell’s castle. Liam Dawson (34) then joined Forsyth for a 67-run stand that had the Panthers dictating terms at 1/108. Shane Maggs (1/58 off 14) trapped Dawson in front and the Herrick had Forsyth caught behind and at 3/124 the game had balanced out nicely.
Dempsey (41) needed 44 runs to become the sixth player in the competition’s history to pass a remarkable 10,000 runs but fell three runs short when he was deceived by Rose and stumped. At 6/184, bragging rights for the day were up for grabs.
The Panthers took the advantage when Peter Sweeney (53) and Ben Hocking (22) combined for a 66-run union and at 6/250 the visitors were once again in command. The Swans have won several close games in recent times and that spirit built from those wins came to the fore late in the day.
Matt Hawking (3/34 off 17.3) and Rose were the pick of the home side’s bowlers all day and the two terrorised the Panthers’ lower order in a terrific fight-back. Hawking knocked over Sweeney, then Rose trapped Hocking before claiming another and all of a sudden the visitors had lost three men without scoring.
Hawking then cartwheeled the pegs to close the innings at 254.
The Swans are 0/2 in reply with Best (2) and Rohan Blandford (0) surviving three overs to close the day.
The home side has 100 overs to win the match, which resumes at 11am this Saturday.