By Marcus Uhe
Dandenong has won consecutive Premier Cricket matches for the first time since the 2021/22 season thanks to a brilliant chase orchestrated by the side’s younger heads.
Dhanusha Gamage made it hundreds in back-back games with an unbeaten 117 off 192 and Joshua Slater hit 131 off 216 as the Panthers completed the 321-run chase in the 84th over against Kingston Hawthorn.
Three early Dandenong wickets, including evergreen Brett Forysth, who had not been dismissed yet in the 2023/24 campaign prior to Saturday, threatened to bring the Panthers back to the pack and wash-away any momentum they had accrued on the back of last week’s upset win over Prahran.
But Gamage and Slater added 222 for the fourth wicket over a near 60-over partnership to complete much of the chase themselves at Walter Galt Reserve.
The two were deliberate in their approach, taking their time to get settled at the crease before freeing their arms later in the chase as time and overs remaining became a larger factor in the context of the afternoon.
From a run rate of roughly 2.5/3 for much of the partnership, it reached just shy of four by the time Slater was dismissed, pulling a short ball from leg-spinner Jack Taylor to the fielder on the midwicket boundary.
With 48 runs still required from the remaining 10 overs, Matthew Wilson channelled his white-ball instincts to make light work of the chase.
His contribution of 31 came off just 18 deliveries and featured three sixes and a four as he and Gamage closed the innings with a 51-run partnership, the finishing touches coming with a pair of sixes (one each).
Gamage sealed the result with a glorious lofted on-drive down on one knee to watch the ball sail over the deep midwicket boundary.
From not being in the selected side for round one’s clash with Casey South Melbourne, Gamage now has a near-unassailable hold on the number three spot in the Panthers’ batting order with back-to-back unbeaten hundreds in his first two innings at senior level.
The Panthers next travel to Jubilee Park for a meeting with the winless Frankston Peninsula in a two-day clash beginning Saturday 11 November.
