By JARROD POTTER
PREMIER CRICKET – Round 15 (day 1)
A CAVALCADE of Test players took Casey Fields by storm on Saturday as Casey-South Melbourne (9/308) took first day honours despite the best efforts of Dandenong and their Test match front-line attack.
James Pattinson (0/41) took the new rock and was lethal against the Casey-South Melbourne top order, with a number of his 140-kilometre thunderbolts.
After his first ball – finding Josh Holden’s (13) edge to Peter Sweeney, Siddle also struggled to make in-roads against a dogged Swans’ batting order.
It brought to the crease Casey’s Test match spearhead – wicketkeeper-batsman Matthew Wade (61). Wade saw off the worst of Pattinson and Siddle and reversed the fortunes in a stellar 126-run partnership with Lachie Sperling (68).
The wickets would finally come as Dan Doran (4/75) and James Wilcock (2/41) picked off middle order scalps, including the important scalp of Wade as he edged Wilcock through to David Alleyne behind the pegs, while Sperling holed out to Sri Lankan Test opener Kaushal Silva off Doran.
The young Swans flew highest as Sperling and former Tooradin batsman Ryan Eaton (74) took the star-studded Panthers to the cleaners.
Eaton notched another half-ton partnership for the Swans in tandem with Shane Maggs (10) before the tail wagged hard as keeper Devin Pollock (27 not out) and Simon Black (20) pushed the tally to 308 by day’s end.
Casey batted through to stumps and has the tough choice whether or not to declare over the weekend and set Dandenong a terrifying triple-century chase on Saturday.
Kooweerup rising star Adam McMaster (1/42) made his two-day Premier debut over the weekend as he stormed in and claimed his first wicket – Casey captain Chris Hall – in his 10 overs.
