By Marcus Uhe
A clean sweep of its four T20 contests in the last two weeks has seen Dandenong climb into fourth place on the Victorian Premier Cricket table with one game remaining before the Christmas interval.
Emerging stars Nathan Whitford and Shobit Singh were the heroes in Saturday’s wins over Kingston-Hawthorn and Geelong, stealing the show with a pair of impressive showings in their respective disciplines of choice.
Singh’s 78 from 57 was the backbone in a strong first innings against the Hawks in Saturday’s morning game at Shepley Oval, before Whitford took 4/18 in the defence.
Singh clattered two sixes and 10 fours in the innings, doing the bulk of the scoring in a 45-run opening stand with Matthew Wilson and an 85-run union with Dhanusha Gamage for the third wicket.
The third over of the match saw the talented youngster hit five fours from the six deliveries in an early display of aggressive intent.
Gamage joined Singh at the crease with the Panthers in a spot of trouble after successive run outs that saw Wilson and Brett Forsyth depart in the space of four balls – Forsyth for first-ball duck.
Gamage played the patient role, rotating the strike with 33 from 34 while Singh attacked at the other end, as Dandenong posted 162.
It proved 31 runs too many for Kingston Hawthorn to chase, dismissed with four balls remaining in the innings.
Whitford removed both of Kingston-Hawthorn’s opening batters in his first two overs before returning later in the piece to help finish what he started.
The visitors remained a slim hope in the contest at 5/113 in the 17th over but fell away dramatically, losing their final four wickets for 18 runs, and having one player retire hurt.
The roles were reversed for the second contest, with Whitford’s bowling putting Dandenong on top early against Geelong.
Whitford repeated his heroics from earlier in the day by removing the Geelong opening pair and cutting the visitors down to 2/7.
Two wickets in Jawid Khan’s first over made it 4/26, with the Cats eventually reaching 144 thanks to some tail-end hitting.
Whitford finished with 3/33 as his final overs received the treatment late in the innings.
Singh switched gears in the chase in direct contrast to his opening innings of the day while players around him chose to attack.
He made 45 from 44 deliveries, laying the platform for James Nanopoulos’ striking to carry the Panthers to the victory.
Nanopoulos struck 16 runs in the 15th over and 19 of the 20 runs made in the 19th over, having arrived at the wicket with 61 required from the final 33 deliveries.
He finished unbeaten on 44 from 22 balls, completing the job at the beginning of the final over.
The Panthers now have a five-point lead over fifth-placed Ringwood, ensconcing themselves in the top eight with six rounds remaining.
They will seek to stretch the winning run to five matches when they face Melbourne at the Albert Ground on Saturday afternoon.
