Panthers skipper Darren Dempsey cuts a ball past point during their T20 loss to Melbourne University at Shepley Oval on Sunday.
By Justin Robertson
EIGHT points were up for grabs, eight points went begging.
For the Dandenong Panthers the double header T20 weekend proved to be painfully woeful as the competition leaders couldn’t muster up a win in either match.
A disgruntled Panthers captain Darren Dempsey was baffled by the weekend’s atrocious results and considers it a lost opportunity to streak further ahead of the league.
“We were pretty average,” he said. “We were lucky to have the buffer heading into the weekend but we certainly did have a bad one.”
In their first hit-out this year at Shepley Oval against Melbourne University on Sunday, the Panthers were skittled for 80 in drizzly and overcast batting conditions. In reply, Melbourne University passed them three wickets down with 35 balls to spare.
It was almost a carbon copy performance of the previous day against Prahran at Toorak Park. The Panthers again failed to fire with the bat, only managing 102 from 20 overs. Prahran won that match easily by eight wickets.
“We seemed to rely on too few to get runs and over the weekend we simply did not make enough,” Dempsey said. “Our bowlers did not have enough runs to defend, so our batsmen really need to lift – especially our middle to lower order.”
It was only a week ago the Panthers were oozing confidence when they rocked St.Kilda by 187 runs and had Hawthorn-Monash on the verge of an outright, so the weekend’s dismal showing has got Dempsey miffed as his troops were gathering some momentum heading into the halfway stage of the season. “We didn’t play anywhere near our best and with the T20s and the way it’s set up, if you lose momentum, you lose the game,” Dempsey said. “It was very disappointing we couldn’t maintain our gap, but really, the competition is just so even.”
Dempsey said, Victorian quick James Pattinson bowled reasonably well over the course of the weekend but still needs more match fitness for him to be able to bowl and take a bag of wickets – something he is more than capable of doing.
Alex Hales continues his topsy-turvy form, managing just five runs from his past two outings. Along with his two blistering centuries, Hales has also scored three ducks, but still tops the Panthers list of leading batsmen with 347 runs at 38.56.
“Yeah Alex has been hit and miss of late, but if he makes five hundreds along with five ducks, I’d be pretty happy with that,” Dempsey said. “He’s more suited to the T20 game, so now he’s only got two games left to do something.”
Dempsey says that on the back of some sub-par batting, the axe will fall this week.
“There will be a few changes– three, maybe four – as we try to pick a team that is going to be good, come finals,” he said. “There are a few guys that haven’t been performing so we’ll be looking at some new guys to come in and take their chances.”
